Mad World
by djufferss
Summary: Mona is a normal girl. She hasn't done anything noteworthy, her life was average, she was normal. So why the hell did she end up in a world of magic! GajeelxOC (Slow updates, I'm sorry!)
1. Chapter 1

**AN: Hello! Djufferss here with my first Fairy Tail fic! I hope you like this, and please review! Feedback and criticism is very welcome because it helps me get better as a writer!**

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The last thing I remember was being hit by a car.

Since then I woke up in an unfamiliar forest and promptly got chased by a large green… thing, for lack of a better word.

I was currently hiding behind a large tree, my heavy breathing and the steps of the creature the only thing I could hear.

What the fuck is happening?

What the fuck what that?

Where the fuck am I?

There I was; walking home, minding my own business when a car hits me and I get sent to some crazy forest where I get chased by a friggin' green monster!

I sighed. I'm not going to get anywhere sitting here and feeling sorry for myself.

With that thought, I stood up and began walking.

#

Surprisingly, it didn't take much longer to get to civilization. The only problem was that the busy town I was currently standing in looked strange. There were no cars or vehicles, only carts pulled by large animals that reminded me of Timon from the Lion King. The people were just as odd though, some were dressed casually whereas others were dressed no so casually.

It looked a lot like the period dramas I see on TV.

I carried on walking looking around the strange village, not knowing what to do with myself. The people around me acted like nothing was wrong, and maybe there wasn't anything wrong, for them. I was a different story however as I stepped into a shop, briefly noticing the sign that had two staffs crossing above the door.

"Hello, hello! Welcome to my magic shop! How may I be of service to you, young lady?" The old man in the dull green robes and matching pointy hat greeted me joyfully. He had quite a square face, and he was about a head shorter than me.

"I'm a little lo-" I started. Wait, did he just say magic? "I'm sorry, I'm not here to buy anything. I-"

Before I could finish my sentence, his face dropped from its happy facade to a look of disinterest as he studied his nails. "Oh, no money, eh? Why'd you have to waste my time then."

"What's with the attitude change!" I screamed in shock, before composing myself. "Whatever, I'm completely lost. Can you tell me where we are?" I asked politely, despite his rude behavior.

"Tch."

"Tch? DON'T 'TCH' ME MISTER!" I shouted, aggravated at his responses.

"We're in Oak Town."

"Oak Town?" I had never heard of Oak Town, but it strongly reminded me of Pokemon.

"Yes, Oak Town. As in the Oak Town in Magnolia." He finished this sentence with an exasperated sigh and started muttering about stupid girls. Rude much? God, I was almost done with how this ma-

I paused in my thoughts. Wait…

"MAGNOLIA!?" I shouted in shock. I could almost see my jaw dropping to the wooden floor of this shop. How could this have happened?

"Jeez, for a little girl you're really annoying!" He complained, sticking a finger in his ear as if to clear it.

"Mister, have you ever heard of Fairy Tail?" I asked desperately, running to the wooden counter and grabbing his shoulders, shaking him slightly in the process.

"Calm down! Of course I've heard of Fairy Tail!" He replied, pushing me a distance away from me.

I ignored his rude order and only pushed forward. "What year is it?"

"Right, now I know you have problems." He had given up on pushing me away, and was now scratching his head. "X781, now get out of my shop! You're creeping me out!"

I thanked him as I dashed for the door. Stepping out l, safely missing the random items being thrown at me I leaned on the building.

X781, eh? That's definitely how years are set out in the Fairy Tail world…

I looked up at the sky. So, I got hit by a car and in the process ended up in the Fairy Tail world?

So, what now? I was oddly ok with this. I wasn't freaking out, I wasn't trying to think of a logical explanation to all this, I wasn't a sobbing mess on the floor at the thought of never seeing my old world again. I was just there. I felt strangely detached from by body at that moment.

I felt surreal.

I suppose I'd need to do something for money, for food and shelter. I didn't know how long this would be after all. If it was permanent or…

My thought were interrupted as I collided with something hard and fell on my butt awkwardly.

"Hey pay attention to where you're walking."

"Sorry, that was my fault." I looked up, " I sho-" my voice cracked at the sight of a certain iron dragon slayer. How did I meet someone so soon! I coughed, noticing that I didn't finish talking. "I should have been looking."

"Yeah." We stared at each other in an awkward silence for a moment. He stuck his hand out towards me. "You gonna take it or just sit there like an idiot?" He asked rather gruffly, despite his kind gesture.

"Thanks." I grasped his hand as he pulled me up, surprising me with his strength. Now that I had a closer look at him I noted that he looked a little different. He of course had the Phantom Lord mark on his arm, it would be a few years until he joined Fairy Tail. His black hair was still very long, but a little shorter, and I noticed he lacked a few piercings. He still had his earrings and eyebrow piercings but his arm and nose were bare of the metal studs. However, there was no denying it. This was Gajeel Redfox.

"Are you in Phantom Lord?" I asked, despite knowing that he was.

"Yeah." He replied, briefly looking down at his black guild mark. It was silent again.

"…Well, I better get going." I said, stepping away slowly. He only nodded, giving me a weird look as he walked away from me.

I released a breath I didn't know I was holding. I wasn't ready for that! Not at all!

At least it was only one time. It's not like I'm going to see him again right? I mean, I'd like to see him again… but it's not like he'd like me anyway. I shook my head. He was probably just on a job here, and he'll be on his way back to Phantom Lord in no time.

I rounded the corner, and came face to face with something I kinda didn't/kinda did want to see. A building with a large sign saying 'Phantom Lord' along its respective guild mark.

I guess Gajeel would be here longer than a day.


	2. Chapter 2

I breathed in and out, desperately trying to regain my breath as I leaned into the wall of the alley way. I wasn't having the best day.

I didn't get much sleep the night before, owing to the fact that I didn't have anywhere to stay and I wasn't up to testing the safety of this village at night. I found a shut up shop stall which thankfully kept me warm in the cold night and I made sure to get out early, so I didn't get arrested for squatting in someone's stall. That would have been pitiful.

So I was already a little crabby from no sleep.

I had been wandering aimlessly around the town, trying to act like I wasn't having a mental breakdown over being homeless and jobless when I saw a group of people, and bearing the Phantom Lord mark. I turned tail and ran away, following the desicion to avoid anyone plot related I had decided while I was squatting the night before. I ran a little while until I stopped, deeming it safe enough to slow down when I spotted the guild's fire wizard, Totomaru. Don't ask me why I remembered his name, I had a teenie crush on him when I was watching the Phantom Lord arc, okay. So after I turned to run from Totomaru, I faced another group of Phantom mages. Which brings me back to my current position.

I assumed no one would have any business in a seedy alleyway.

Feeling a cold liquid drop on my nose, I looked up to see rain starting to fall from the sky, the rain getting stronger by the second. I smiled, I always liked the rain.

"Drip, drip drop. Are you not going to go inside?" Really? Does fate have it out for me or something? I can't get away from Phantom mages!

I was just about to bolt when she spoke again. "Are you afraid of Juvia?"

I turned from the refreshing rain to look at the blue haired rain woman. The look on her face still seemed indifferent, but the tone of her voice sounded so… lonely. I thought back to when I was watching the Phantom arc. She was always so lonely, everyone shunned her because of her rain.

She never had real friends. Just like me…

Maybe I can make an exception with Juvia. I smiled, and shook me head. "Of course not. Why would I be?"

She looked a little surprised at my reply. "People usually run away from Juvia. Drip, drip drop."

I smiled, "I won't run away from you. It's nice to meet you. I'm Mona." I greeted, sticking my hand out to her. "Let's be friends!"

She looked at my hand, her eyes a little wide. "You really want to be friends with Juvia?"

"Yeah, I wouldn't have said it if I didn't mean it." I kept my hand out towards her. "That's if you want to me my friend."

She accepted my hand, shaking it a little violently. "O-of course! Juvia would like to be friends with Mona-san!"

I internally fangirled. I am not going to deny the fact that I was friends with my favourite character, so this was a pretty good turn out for the day. Even though I ignored my past self instead of ignoring someone from the plot…

"Hey now that we're friends we should do something together!" Juvia suggested. "Juvia has never had a sleepover before, that's what friends do right?" I nodded. "Oh! But Juvia isn't allowed to bring anyone who isn't part of Phantom to the dorms." She added, looking down at the ground dejectedly.

"We could do it at mine, sometime." I offered, ignoring the fact that as it stands, 'mine' would probably be another stall. I didn't want her to know I was homeless but I also didn't want her to think I didnt want a sleepover, because I did.

"That's perfect! Juvia is very excited to have a sleepover with her friend." She said, grinning with a happy blush on her face.

She opened her mouth to say something else when a different voice cut her off.

"Juvia! I've been looking for you! Master wants us in his office."

"Oh, Gajeel-kun. I'm sorry, I was talking to my new friend, Mona-san." She gestured to me while looking at Gajeel.

"Friend? You're that girl I saw yesterday." He claimed, pointing a finger at me.

"Hi, again." I said meekly, my previous confidence now gone with his arrival.

"Man Juvia, what are you doing running off and making friends with weird girls in alleys." He complained staring at me.

"Hey, I'm not weird." I retorted, a frown on my face.

"Whatever, let's go Juvia, Master's waiting." With that he walked off, not waiting for the rain woman.

"Juvia had fun meeting you. Goodbye, Mona-san."

"Same to you, Juvia-chan." I replied, adding the unfamiliar suffix at the end.

#

That night I decided I needed sleep. I walked down the street, checking if any of the stalls were unlocked until I found one that wasn't. I looked around the street, trying not to look suspicious as I waited for the area to be empty and then jumped behind the stall, trying to get as comfortable as I could. It didn't take long for me to fall asleep, and soon I was waking up to the wooden doors being swung on the hinges.

Shit.

"Hey! What are you doing in my stall!"

Shit!

"It's you!" I opened my eyes, squinting at the sudden light. "First my shop and now my stall, what's wrong with you?!" I saw a very square head.

SHIT.

"I'm sorry Mister!" I shot up, and began apologizing to the magic store owner.

"Calm down! You're causing a scene!" The man was right, I could hear gossipy whispers from behind him.

"I'm sorry. I'll stop." I said, I felt like I was going to cry, this is surely illegal! And then no one will hire me and I'll have to resort to crime to get money and…

"Are you homeless?" The shopkeeper asked, his face looking kinder and not the fake kind he had when I walked in his shop.

"…" I didn't know what to say. Everyone was staring at me, I felt so ashamed.

He sighed as he rubbed his temples, "I can't believe I'm doing this. Do you need somewhere to stay?" I perked up at this question and nodded my head eagerly.

"You'll work at my shop obviously, I'm not a charity."

"Of course! Thank you!" I saw so happy, I had a job and a place to stay! Without thinking I jumped out of the stall and hugged the shopkeeper.

"Arch! Get off me, crazy girl!" He complained, I quickly obeyed and stood up straight.

"What do you want me to to do first, boss?"

"Get a bath. You smell horrible."


	3. Chapter 3

So I officially had a job. It was pretty grueling in hindsight. I had to restock the shelves in the shop, lift heavy crates and boxes because Arnost had 'back problem's, clean the shop and work the counter. But I didn't complain at all, because it was luxury compared to the three days I spent homeless and hopeless. I guess I have a really weak tolerance for that stuff. In return for my work, I got a small room, food, clothes shelter, and a small amount of money. I was more than thankful to the shopkeeper, Arnost.

It had been a week since I came to the Fairy Tail world, and I was faring quite well. I was currently walking through the town, my shift at the magic store had just ended and I was on a 'special' job for Arnost. He said special, I said degrading. I had to get away from the market, where the residents were very gossipy and the news about the 'homeless teenage rebel' that Arnost had taken in. Let's just say the townsfolk weren't as understanding of my situation as Arnost was. Not that he knew my whole situation, mind you.

Arnost was very mean at first, like my first day in this world, but he was really just a big softie. He was really kind, despite how he tried to hide it.

On my fourth day here, I decided to keep a diary. I had tried in the past, in my world, and always failed at it. But without the distractions of Internet, which I will surely miss, I think I had time to keep one. I had written about how I got here, how my life was going, how I was feeling about everything, how I met Gajeel and Juvia.

I hadn't seen Juvia since we met in the alley on my second day. I hope I'll see her again though, the most definite way of seeing her was to go to Phantom Lord, but I was still trying to avoid everyone else. It sounded stupid, I know. Especially stupid, considering the job that Arnost had given me.

I spotted a group of three male mages, all sporting the Phantom Lord mark. I sighed, here goes nothing.

"Ne, you guys are mages right? From Phantom Lord?" I asked, putting my best cutesy voice on.

"Yeah, course we are, darling." One of them said, pointing to the guild mark on his neck with cockey grin on his face.

"Really! That's so cool, onii-chan!" I exclaimed, trying to keep the cringe at that nickname down. "That means you'd buy items for wizards, right?" I asked again, looking up at them through my eyelashes in fake shyness.

They all had blushes on their faces by now, as they nodded eagerly.

"Well, the thing is…" I began, forcing a teary expression on my face, "My store is kinda in trouble, and I was hoping some strong hansome mages could save me? Although, I don't have any money for a reward. I guess I'd have to give you guys something else…"

"Of course! We'll do anything for you!" They shouted in unison. The blushes were spread now so their whole faces were red and they all had nosebleeds.

"Really!?" I clapped my hands together, "then make sure to spend lots of money at Arnost's wizard shop, 'kay?" With that I ran off.

I have lost all dignity.

#

After I finished my… job, I had settled in a local café and I was currently sitting on a single person table writing down in my diary while I drank my tea.

Since it was only X781, it would be three years until the timeline of the series starts, three years until Lucy and Natsu meet.

So, The Tower of Heaven isn't completed yet, Jellal is still part of the Magic Council as Siegrain. This is a problem. I would like to stop certain things from happening, and Simon's death was the first thing I thought of, the only problem is; how am I going to get to the Tower of Heaven at the right time?

"Hello, Mona-san." I looked up to see a smiling Juvia, she was holding a bag which had the café's logo on it. I smiled back.

"Juvia-chan! It's nice to see you again, you wanna sit down?" I greeted.

She nodded and pulled a chair to sit across from me.

"How are you?" She asked politely, starting the conversation.

"Great. I recently got a new job and a place to stay too." I was feeling so much better than I did on my first night here. Everything seemed right.

"Huh? Did you not have a job or a home before?" Shit, I really didn't want to tell her that I was homeless. At least not this soon!

"Well.. I'm new to Oak Town actually." I scratched my head in embarrassment, "I've only been here for a week."

"Really? Where did you live before?" She asked. Crap, I don't want to lie to her, but…

"England." I finally answered.

"Where's that? Juvia's never heard of England." She asked again, she looked genuinely interested.

"It's really far away. It's not even in Fiore." She nodded in interest.

"Ne, are you still up for a sleepover?" I asked, she perked up immediately.

"Yes! Juvia would like that." She answered excitedly.

"Great, are you free next Sunday?" I asked, thinking of when I wouldn't be working.

"Sunday is great for Juvia!"

#

"No."

"Why not? Arnost please, I promised her she could!" I begged. After I had bid Juvia farewell I rushed back to the shop to ask/tell him about Juvia staying. Unfortunately, he had denied straight away and had been begging him ever since.

"Don't make promises you can't keep then! This isn't a hotel, you can't just invite your friends over when you want to." He scolded.

"Please, she was so excited about this, so was I! I can't blow her off now!" I carried on, I know he was right I should have asked him first, but why couldn't he just let me?

"No means no." He turned to look at me, glaring at me scarily.

I turned on my best puppy eyes and stared back. "Please? She's my only friend, I don't want to let her down."

We stood there for a moment, just looking at each other. I wasn't going to give up. He sighed and rubbed his temples, "Fine." I cheered. " But, you have to work double shifts on tomorrow."

"I'll be happy to."


	4. Chapter 4

Before I knew it, the day was Sunday and I was sitting on the floor of my room with Juvia.

"So, what do you wanna do?" I asked, unsure of what we would do to pass the time.

"I don't know, what to people usually do at sleepovers?" She asked curiously, completely oblivious. It was cute, but then I remembered why she doesn't know.

"Well, I'm not sure if they're different here but where I'm from we do all sorts of things." I placed a hand on my chin in thought. "I used to bake cakes and stuff; gossip about things, mostly boys actually; watch movie lacrimas, whatever we felt like doing."

"Well, I don't know many boys we can gossip about. I mean, at the guild there Monsieur Sol-san, Aria-san, Totomaru-san, and of course Master Jose. You've also met Gajeel-kun." She went into muttering a long list of all the males she knew.

I sweatdropped. "Actually, that's not what I meant."

"Oh, really?" She paused in her mumbling. "What did you mean?"

"Like, you gossip about boys that you like romantically. I guess I don't know any guys in the first place…"

Juvia's face went bright red. "R-romance?" Steam began coming out out of her ears and she shook her head frantically. "No no, Juvia does not have a good history with r-romance..."

"Hmm…" I faked a thinking expression on my face, placing a hand on my chin. "I think you'd go for the dark Haired cool type." I nodded, imagining Gray in my head. Of course I was a major Gruvia shipper in my world, if you couldn't guess.

She placed her hands on her cheeks, "R-really?"

I laughed.

#

It had been five days since Juvia had stayed over at my house. We had become quite good friends, and was very happy about that. This meant that I had almost been in this world for two weeks.

I was currently trying to safely return to Arnost shop, however the plethora of boxes I was carrying blocked my view of the street before me as I blindly stepped forward. Arnost had given me the job of moving the new items he bought back to the shop, simple. The only problem was that they were sent to his storage building that was located at the other side of the town, and I had to walk that trek everyday. I stopped momentarily, adjusted my grip on the heavy boxes before stepping forward again, only to trip on something hard, causing the boxes to fly up in the air and fall to the concrete path with a group of crashes.

I'm so screwed.

I groaned, picking my self up onto my knees, only to be distracted by a pair of black shoes. "Hey, hey! Little girl, what're you doing on the floor?"

I looked up, locking eyes with a guy who had blonde hair and was wearing a green cameo shirt with a leather jacket. He had his foot sticking out in front of me, obviously the thing I tripped over.

"I tripped."

"What're you tripping for?"

"Well, I didn't do it on purpose did I!" I snapped, he laughed. His laugh reminded me of a Hyena.

He laughed at me, sticking his tongue out. "You're pretty spunky, little girl."

"Don't call me little girl, I'm sixteen!"

"Hey, little girl, what're you doing on your own in the dark?" He returned his tongue back in its place and looked around. He was right, it had been getting dark when I set off and now it was completely dark.

I ignored his little girl comment. "Work." I replied, walking over and collecting the magic items, returning them to their boxes before piling them up in my arms.

How was I going to explain this to Arnost?

"Loving the sarcasm little girl, you're pretty spunky."

"You've already said that." I straightened up, fixing my grip of the boxes. "Now, I'll be on my way."

"Now that's not gonna work, little girl!" He said, exasperated.

I stopped, turning my head to face the weird guy. "Huh? What's that supposed to mean?" I asked warily,

He didn't reply, only stuck his arm forward in my direction.

"Uh, what are you doing?" I asked, sweatdropping at his actions.

Suddenly, a rope came from his sleeve. It kept coming towards me and I could only stand there stupidly until the rope was wrapped around me and I couldn't move.

"H-hey, what is this?" I asked, fear seeping into my voice.

"Jeez Bell! Took you long enough!" A man complained, emerging from behind a boulder.

Bell laughed maniacally, "I wanted to mess with her for a while first, lighten up Rich."

Rich sighed, "Messing with her won't earn money, the quicker we get her to the Auctioneers, the quicker we get money and get out of this place."

Auctioneers? What, are they gonna sell me?! At this thought, my emotions got the hold of me. You see, the thought of being sold just… terrified me. But it was well deserved.

I started screaming. Really loudly. "AHHH!"

This caused Rich and Bell to jump. "Hey! Be quiet!"

"That's not gonna make her stop, moron!" Rich shouted, karate chopping Bell on the head.

All of a sudden the ropes were gone and I stopped screaming in confusion. I looked back at the kidnappers to see their overly shocked faces.

"HOW DID YOU DO THAT?" They shouted in unison.

I frowned, what were they talking about? I looked down to see the ropes, or should I say the remains of the ropes as they were cut up into little pieces. Huh? How did I do that?

"HER HAIR! RICH IT'S MOVING!" Bell screamed, pointing at my head.

I paused. He was right. My hair suddenly felt like another limb that I could move at will. I experimented by wiggling it a little, a lock of black entered my vision shining a dark purple in the light.

Rich shook his head. "Enough of this, she's just a magic user. We're more experienced though." He raised his hand into a fist, causing a boulder to float towards me and threw it.

I yelped, what do I do? I thought back to Flare from the Grand Magic Games arc. She could do other things with her hair, but could I?

I made a section of hair fly into the boulder causing it to smash into little pieces. Then, I wrapped my hair around each of them and slammed them into the ground, knocking them unconscious.

When I came to my senses I returned my hair to its original elbow length and ran back to the shop.


	5. Chapter 5

"You have magic?" Juvia asked, a stupendous look on her face as she blinked at me.

"Yeah! Hair magic!" I replied excitedly. As soon as I returned home the day before I had happily told Arnost about what had happened to me and then I ran to Phantom Lord to find Juvia, happily repeating the story to her.

"How did you not know before this?" She asked again, we were stood outside the Phantom Lord building, leaning on one of the many brick walls surrounding the area.

I hesitated. "Well, where I'm from magic isn't known." I explained, it was the truth, I was just leaving out the fact that 'where I'm from' was actually another world.

"Juvia's never heard of a place like that."

"It's a little behind on the times." I answered, hoping that would end the discussion on the subject.

"Well, if you have magic are you going to join a guild? you should join Phantom Lord!" She suddenly zoned out, muttering excitedly about me joining.

"I don't know." I replied, unsure. I had wanted to stay away from the plot since I came here, afraid of changing the plot, but now having magic and being friends with Juvia increased the chances of becoming involved. I must admit, it went down the drain as soon as I stayed in that alley with Juvia, not that I had any regret for doing that at all.

"Juvia! Ya coming or what?!" A gruff, but familiar voice interrupted both of us in our individual thoughts. I followed the voice to see Gajeel, again. He was standing a few steps from us, his arms crossed as he looked impatiently at my friend.

"Yes, sorry Gajeel-kun." Juvia politely apologized. She turned back to me. "I'm going on a mission for a few days. You should think about it, Juvia would like it if you joined Phantom Lord." She gave me a bright smile before running to Gajeel and they walked off, leaving me dumbfounded.

#

 _The room looked to belong to an average teenage girl. There were posters of various boybands plastered on the walls, a single pink covered bed was placed in the middle of the room, wedged between a bedside table, and facing matching white dresser and wardrobe._

 _Two girls sat Indian style on a fluffy, orange rug. Both were in sleepwear, one of the girls whom had long black hair that glinted purple in the moonlight and dull mustard eyes was wearing a grey printed t-shirt and blue checkered shorts. While the other girl had bright blonde hair and bright orange eyes and was wearing an orange vest top, along long with pink and white horizontal striped pants._

" _If you had the power to make any fictional character real, who would you chose?" the dark Haired girl questioned slyly, a large grin on her face._

 _Despite her friend's calculative look, the blonde scoffed. "Easy, Monkey D. Luffy."_

 _The black haired girl rolled her eyes. "Other than Luffy."_

" _Nope, that's not allowed, Mona. My turn." the blonde retorted, before a thinking expression spread on her face. After a moment her face lit up. "I've got one! If you were in the Fairy Tail world, what would you do?"_

 _The other girl thought for a moment, "Do I already have magic?" After the nod from her companion she answered. "I'd join Fairy Tail, I just couldn't stay away from all the awesome people."_

 _Her friends nodded, "Same here, every other choice would just feel boring." Mona nodded at her words. "I mean, how could you stay away from all those hotties?"_

 _Mona sighed, "Dawn!" She complained, despite the large grin on her face._

It had been a few hours since Juvia made her offer about Phantom Lord and I couldn't stop thinking about it. The brush in my hands was forgotten as soon as my mind drifted off, the only sound was of the bristles furiously scraping the wooden floor.

Should I join? I originally wanted to stay away, in fear of ruining the plot but, now that I had magic I did want to join a guild. I had the choice of having a life of adventure, could I give it up? I remembered back to when I used to talk about these things with my friends, but now it was real. I wasn't back home with Dawn playing a fun game. This was reality.

I sighed again.

"Okay, brat. What's your problem?"

I looked up to see my boss, Arnost, scowling at me. I blinked.

"My problem?"

He pointed to my hands. "You haven't stopped scrubbing that one part of the floor for an hour. What's your problem?" I looked down to see he was right. This area of floor was scrubbed shining clean, while the rest was still dark with dirt. I hadn't even dipped the brush in water since I started the chore.

I signed. Changing my position on the floor so I was sitting with my legs crossed. "When I told Juvia about my magic, she asked me to join Phantom Lord." I finally answered, looking at the ground.

A huff filled my ears. "What's wrong with that?" He asked, anger in his voice. "I though you would be happy to spend time with her."

"I'd love that, it's just…" I didn't want to tell him about my situation, but I needed someone to talk to. "Ever since I came to Oak Town, I wanted to steer clear of any magic guild. Including Phantom Lord and-"

I was rudely cut off by Arnost letting out a laugh. "That'd be pretty hard, since they run this town! Only you could be that dumb, brat."

I glared. He shutup, but didn't look very sorry. "…and suddenly I'm friends with Juvia and now I have powers and…" I groaned. "I want to join. I really do, but I can't. I can't say why, but joining isn't something I can do."

He frowned. "You want to join?"

"Well, yeah-"

"is there a particular person trying to stop you?"

"No, bu-"

"Then stop being stupid. You say you can't but all I hear are the words of a coward." He scolded.

I lowered my head. "It wouldn't be selfish of me?"

A hand was placed on my head, I looked up to see a rare kind expression on his face. "There's nothing wrong with being selfish every now and then."

I smiled. "But don't think you'll get out of this job so easily! You're not leaving any time soon!" She shouted, hitting me with the soapy brush, much to my disdain.


	6. Chapter 6

"What? You're joining the guild, weird girl?"

"Yes, Gajeel-kun. Isn't that great? Juvia is so happy!" Juvia cheered, clapping her hands.

I had just left Master Jose's office after he agreed to let me join Phantom Lord. He was very scary, and as creepy as on the anime. I was worried that he wouldn't let me in the guild. Thankfully, Juvia had put in a good word for me and I was just on my way to get my new guild mark at the bar.

"Uh, please don't call me weird girl…" I requested weakly, not expecting him to listen to me. I looked to the side not looking in his direction.

"Come with Juvia, Mona-san. You need to get your guild mark." Juvia said, grabbing my hand and leading me to the bar.

A tall, red headed woman covered in piercings stood behind counter. Her long hair was spikey and shaved on the left. She wore a black vest top over a netted shirt and a buckle covered mini skirt. upon noticing me she gave me a mean look. "What do you want?" She questioned rudely, looking me up and down judgementally.

"Oh, where do I go to get a guild mark?" I asked, slightly offended by her attitude.

"Here. Obviously." She replied, rolling her eyes at my completely plausible question!

"Well, then can-" I started, getting extremely frustrated with the woman in front of me, when she interrupted.

"Gajeel-kun! I didn't know you were back!" Her face brightened considerably at the sight of the iron dragon slayer.

Gajeel nodded in acknowledgement.

"Can I-" I started again, I frowned when she cut me off with a shush and turned back to Gajeel.

"Excuse me?!" I shouted. How ignorant could she get! But she continued asking Gajeel about his mission.

"Ingrid, the weird girl needs her guild mark." The barmaid stopped questioning him immediately.

"Sure Gajeel-kun, no problem!" She smiled fakely at him before turning to me. "Come on then, weird girl."

"My name is Mona." I replied icily, but still followed the woman.

"Where do you want it?" She asked, holding a stamp.

"Here." I answered, pointing to my right hipbone.

She raised an eyebrow, "If that's what you want…" She said, I ignored her and allowed her to press the stamp to my hip, a little harshly. She removed the stamp after a few seconds and I looked down to see a purple Phantom Lord mark on my skin.

"I'm officially a Phantom Lord mage now!" I cheered, turning to Juvia.

"That's great!" She cheered back, smiling at me. "Look Gajeel!"

I turned in the same direction as her, only to sweatdrop at the sight of Ingrid shamelessly flirting with Gajeel, both were completely oblivious to the rain woman.

She suddenly took on a gloomy aura and I tried my hardest to put her back to normal. "Hey its alright Juvia." I said, patting her back.

"Looking as gloomy as usual, Juvia!" a deep voice stated. I looked up to see a guy with half white hair and half black hair, on his face were three distinct, horizontal lines.

"Totomaru-san. You're back." She replied politely, back to her usual straight faced expression.

"Yeah, it was a quick job." He paused, turning his attention to me. "You-you're kinda cute!" He exclaimed, blushing.

"Eh?" Cute? Oh my god. Totomaru from Elemental Four just called me cute. I felt a blush of my own creeping on my face as he smiled down at me.

"I'm Totomaru, what's your name?" He asked eagerly.

"Uh, Mona. It's nice to meet you." I replied, feeling a little awkward at his openness.

This is going to be a problem.

#

Later on, I was sat at the bar awkardly. Juvia had left abruptly for an urgent mission with Monsieur Sol. I guess S class wizards are worked pretty hard.

This left me sitting in a row, with Totomaru who would flirt very loudly every now and then, bringing attention to the two of us and Gajeel who was ignoring me completely. Ingrid was stood behind the bar, glaring daggers at me as she sharpened the kitchen knifes. I gulped in fear.

"Are you thirsty Mo-chan?" Totomaru asked, I ignored his question however as my eye twitched at the nickname. "Ingrid, can you get a drink for Mo-chan?"

The girl's eyes glinted evily. A moment later she slammed a glass in front of me, almost cracking it, and leant forward. "Don't think for a minute that we're going to get along." She hissed into my ear.

I frowned. "What beef do you have with me?!" I shouted leaning over the counter to shout at her.

"Isn't is obvious? You really think I'm gonna give Gajeel to some little girl?!" She shouted, slamming her forehead into mine. "I don't think so!"

"I'm not interested in him you damn freak! Leave me alone!" I shouted back. What the hell was her problem?!

We glared at each other for a while before she moved go grab my hair. It moved instinctively and I grabbed her wrist, dragging her down to hit the table. She stopped herself with her free hand, then sticking it in my direction. A bright green substance shot out of her palm, and hit me in the shoulder.

"What the hell is this?" I asked in disgust, trying to get the horrible gooey substance off my shoulder, only to get it all over my hand.

I jumped back, trying to dodge another shot of green slime. I was successful, but stopped cheering when the room when silent. I turned around to see Gajeel and Totomaru covered in the sticky green substance, both looking very displeased with their position.

I raised a hand to stifle a laugh, as Ingrid ran past me. "Gajeel-kun! Are you okay?" She asked urgently, hurriedly removing the goo and ignoring Totomaru in the process. She turned to me with an angry look. "Look what you did!"

"Hey, I did nothing. You shouldn't have aimed you horrible goo in your precious Gajeel's direction!" I defended, an amused smirk spreading on my face.

"Yeah! This isn't Mo-chan's fault!" Totomaru quickly came to my defense.

Ingrid looked very annoyed, but it was Gajeel who spoke next. "Just let me drink my damn drink in peace!"

Ingrid shut her mouth straight away and returned to the other side of the counter.

I could tell that this was going to be a crazy guild.


	7. Chapter 7

"Yo, weird girl! You coming or what?"

I lifted my head from my journal, shutting it abruptly when I saw Gajeel waiting impatiently in the shop's doorway. Smirking, I answered, "Your patience is still lacking I see."

He rolled his eyes, "Just hurry up, everyone's already at the guild."

I nodded. "Yeah, give me a minute I've got to tell Arnost and grab my stuff."

"I'll be at the guild hall with Juvia. Meet us when you're done."

"So, you're really not gonna wait for me then." I replied. He merely grunted and walked out.

I smiled. It had been about three years since I woke up in the forest, and joined Phantom Lord. I had been getting along fine with my new life. I couldn't deny that I would feel home sick from time to time but the new friends I found helped with that. Juvia and I were even closer now, I was good friends with Totomaru despite his openness, and I had even gotten on Gajeel's good side, much to Ingrid's dislike. But any chance to annoy the rude redhead a blessing. My magic had improved too, I wasn't S class level like Elemental four but I could look after myself in a fight, having gone on a few missions with Juvia and on my own too. In the three years my appearance had changed as well, my hair was down down to my waist and with my earnings from the shop and on various missions, I was able to get a wardrobe that didn't consist of boys clothes. Right now I was wearing my usual outfit; a black crop top, that showed off my purple guild mark on my right hip; knee high brown boots; a Maroon sleeveless parka; my brown mini skirt and my black utility belt. I grabbed my tonfa blasters off the table and placed them in my belt.

Stepping toward the doorway behind the counter. "Arnost! I'm off to the guild!" I shouted before scooping up my cameo back pack and running out the door. Gajeel was only a few steps away from me, so I jogged to catch up with him.

"Gajeel!" He halted at my voice until I was next to him again. "So, what's this oh so important meeting that Master needed the whole guild for?" I asked.

"Now who's the impatient one?" He retorted, I laughed sarcastically.

"Fine, I'll wait then." I replied, facing away from him.

"We got a special mission." He answered, smirking. "There's gonna be a good fight. I can sense it."

"Well if there's a fight of course you'll be excited." I teased, poking his arm.

"Tch, whatever." He replied, walking a little ahead of me. I grinned, used to his gruff attitude by now.

Eventually we were at Phantom Lord. I quickly found Juvia in the room sitting at a table, her pink umbrella leaning on her chair. Totomaru was sat next to the woman, upon noticing me he grinned excitedly and began waving. I headed to the two, noting that Gajeel followed me. Juvia and Gajeel were quite close, surprisingly, and when I joined the guild Juvia pulled me into their group, somehow Totomaru became part of it too. It was so strange sometimes, thinking that they used to be fictional to me, and now they were real people; they were real friends.

I shook my head, placing myself next to my friend. "Hey guys."

"Hello. Juvia is happy to see you again." She greeted politely, I smiled, and sat next to her. Gajeel took a seat next to Totomaru.

"Hey Mo-chan! How are you?" Totomaru asked goofily, I smiled. By now I was very used to his loud flirting.

"I'm fine, thanks." I replied.

Suddenly the master got our attention from the balcony. In these three years, I had gotten used to the guild. They were a little rowdy, but that's what made it fun. Master Jose was a little scary, but he was actually kind of nice. I was apprehensive at first, since all I knew about him was very negative. That was a whole new problem, I was worried about the Phantom Lord vs Fairy Tail fight, I had really grown to care about this guild. I sighed. I hoped that would be later that sooner.

The room was silent in an instant. "We have a special request. Jude Heartfillia has hired this guild to return his daughter, Lucy Heartfillia, back home." There were a few mutters of confusion around me, all questioning why this was so important. I only started at Master Jose. Why did it have to be so soon? I don't want our hurt Fairy Tail, but I didn't want to betray this guild. I didn't want Master Jose to cause trouble. I frowned. "Her, wearabouts just happens to be Fairy Tail."

At his words the room burst into cheers. "Yeah!"

"We can be number one again!"

Even Gajeel was excited, "I can't wait to kick some fairy butt!" He said, slamming a fist on the table.

"I can't wait to see what their mages can do!" Totomaru said in anticipation, grinning.

"Juvia thinks this will be fun too." Juvia commented evenly. She turned to me. "What does Mona think about it?"

I put a fake smiled on my face. "Yeah… it sounds good."

#

I walked through the town, on my way to the guild deep in thought about the whole Fairy Tail issue when my attention was pulled to a group of gossiping women.

"Did you hear about Fairy Tail?" One woman said to the woman next to her.

"What happened?" Her friend questioned, looking so interested as to pause in putting her washing up.

"Well, they were attacked last night. By Phantom Lord." The woman whispered, leaning closer, putting emphasis on the words 'Phantom Lord'.

The other woman gasped. "No! Everyone knew there was tension between them, but to start a fight?"

"I know, there will certainly be a guild war."

She tutted, shaking her head. "What are they thinking?"

Damn. I never wouldn't have guessed we'd act this quickly. I quickened my pace to the guild. When I got there, I saw a large group of fellow members talking.

"Ha! Those faries will never know what hit them!"

"Yeah, they'll never be a match for Gajeel and the Elemental Four!"

"Hey, what are you talking about?" I asked the group, asking oblivious. I wanted to know what had exactly happened. My memories were a little hazy after three years.

"Ah, Mona-san you haven't heard? Gajeel attacked the fairies last night."

"Yeah, their guild is completely trashed now!" At this the group of men all laughed and cheered. I walked away, leaving the men to their business.

I looked around, searching for the dragon slayer. Finally finding him in the rafters I stretched a lock of purple hair around one of the poles and pulled myself up, balancing next to him.

"Gajeel, what did you do?" I asked, seriously. I wanted to know if he was really enjoying this, because this wasn't the person I had gotten to know in these three years.

"Gihihi, gave them a little surprise is all." He smiled, I frowned.

"Why?" He looked surprised at this. "All we need to do it get Lucy Heartfillia, attacking Fairy Tail, is it necessary?" I finished.

He frowned. "I'm sick of everyone saying they're better than us. It's time we prove everyone wrong."

"But…" He cut me off.

"Are you gonna disobey Master Jose's orders?" He asked harshly. I shook my head. "Then keep quiet. Don't make him question your loyalties." with that, he jumped down to the floor and walked out of the guild.


	8. Chapter 8

I pulled the hood of my parka further down, trying go hide my face, and adjusted the yellow scarf that was tied around my waist, covering my guild mark. After I deemed I safe enough, I stepped out from the alley I was hiding in and stepped to face the enemy guild.

Gajeel really did do a number on them. There were huge iron poles protruding from every angle in the building, the walls splintered and broken when they had been pierced. I frowned. I knew this would happen, so why was I so upset by it? I should have been ready for this, I-

"Mira said we shouldn't be alone, due to our circumstances." a voice interrupted my thoughts. I saw a group of three leaving the building I was examining so intensely. A very familiar group of three. I cursed, running to hide from view.

"Sure, Erza. I guess I'll go to Lucy's then." Natsu said nonchalantly.

The scarlet haired woman began blushing furiously. "W-what? No, that's not right! She's at perfect marriagable age! It wouldn't be appropriate!"

Natsu looked confused, "It wouldn't?"

"Jeez, you don't get do you, flame brain?"

"Eh?! What are you trying to say, ice head?"

"What do you think-"

Erza got a dangerous glint in her eyes before declaring, "then it's settled! We'll all stay at Lucy's tonight!"

"What?" the two men said in unison.

"Do you have a problem with this arrangement?" Erza questioned, a scary expression on her face.

"N-not at all!"

The trio walked away, Erza looking very pleased while Natsu and Gray looked as if they feared for their lives.

I stayed in place, completely silent. I must admit, I was a little starstruck, and the sight of their antics made me smile. I could feel my nostalgia coming back, when Fairy Tail was merely an anime, when magic wasn't real.

#

Later on I was sat in a cafe, not far from Fairy Tail drinking a cup of coffee.

I stared down at the dark liquid. I didn't know what I was going to do about the upcoming battle. I didnt want to hurt Fairy Tail, I cared about them and they were good people! But then, I didn't want to betray Phantom Lord either. They were my family. I sighed yet again, pulling out my journal and opening it to a random page and adding things to it, to take my mind off everything.

"Hey, Weird girl. What are you doing here?" I looked up, shutting the journal quickly as I started up at the dragon slayer with wide eyes.

"What are you doing here?" I parroted.

"Jeez, answer me first, weird girl. I was just leaving the faries a present." He explained, laughing his weird laugh again.

"Oh. That's good." I returned my book to my back pack. "I came for some coffee."

"There are coffee shops in Oak Town, y'know."

"This is meant to have the best coffee." I lied.

He looked at me strangely. "Whatever. I'm going to head home. You coming?"

I shook my head, indicating toward my unfinished coffee. I didn't mention the fact that it would be cokd by now, due to the fact that it was dark outside. Why was this shop even still open at this time?

"Suit yourself."

#

The next day, I was reluctant to return to the guild. However, Arnost had literally kicked me out and I had nowhere else to go. I hated this ordeal, why was Phantom changing so much? I knew this was going to happen, but the Phantom Lord I knew, they would never do this. I paused, before stepping through the double doors and walked over to sit on a table by myself. Unfortunately, my peace and quiet was interrupted by more gossiping.

"Those fairies sure got their asses kicked!"

"I heard Gajeel attacked three more of them!" Three? That couldn't be…

" _I was just leaving the fairies a present."_

I lowered my head. So that's what he was doing last night. What was going on? I was used to the usual complaining about Fairy Tail, we were enemy guilds it was expected, but everyone was acting weird. Gajeel was acting more violent and ruthless than usual, and I hadn't even seen Juvia since Master Jose announced the mission.

Suddenly, a loud explosion rang through my ears, and a crash followed by a few Phantom members falling to the ground. I stood up abruptly.

A group of our own jumped at the intruding dragon slayer, weapons at the ready, only to be beaten in an instant.

"Anyone will do. Bring it on!" the fire dragon declared. Everyone in the room ran towards the man at his words.

Natsu was soon followed by the rest of Fairy Tail, "Let's get them!" someone shouted, as both sides clashed.

I ran to hide behind an upturned table, laying my head on my knees. I don't want to fight! I can't fight for something I don't believe in, but I can't betray my guild!

"He's a monster!" I heard someone scream, I raised my head, peeking over the table to see a growing Makarov.

"You laid a hand on this monsters kids! Don't even think for a second you'll be protected by human laws!" He shouted in anger.

Everyone fought back, but were disheartened by the pure strength of Fairy Tail. I looked around and it was clear that we were losing, I silently cheered for our enemy, and avoided the fight. I saw Ingrid fighting the sand mage, Max, but was struggling to even make her green slime touch the man.

"JOSE! WHERE ARE YOU!" Makarov shouted again, causing the room to shake.

"Where are Gajeel and the Elemental Four!?" Erza demanded, swiftly finishing off my allies donning her flame empress armour.

I cursed at the destruction, looking up to the rafters I saw Gajeel observing the battle with a wicked grin. For a moment he looked at me with a frown, no doubt wondering why I wasn't fighting. Usually, if I wanted to, I'd be right at the front battling with Fairy Tail.

The sight of a large flame dissappearing brought my attention to Natsu, I stared at his powers in awe. I had seen Gajeel eat iron loads of times before, but I had to admit; Natsu made it look so much cooler. It was clear to see our side was falling back, despite Phantom having more people, Fairy Tail had strength and anger. They had something to fight for.

There was a crash from the direction of Master Jose's office, I looked up to see the small form of Makarov walk in the room, stepping over the remains on the large double doors that should have been there.

Then, Gajeel decided to join the party.


	9. Chapter 9

The loud cracking of our guild sign brought the attention of both Phantom Lord and Fairy Tail. Gajeel stood on the broken sign, looking almost scary.

One of the Fairy Tail members pounced on him. "How dare you hurt Levy!" He was made quick work of however, and fell to the ground with a crash, hitting some of our own comrades in the process. What the hell? I've seen him fight people sometimes, but to hurt them so badly…

"He's even hurting his own nakama!" Gray called out in disbelief. I clenched my teeth. I wanted to go out there, to stop him. But I knew it wouldn't work, and I'd be betraying my guild in the process.

"Come and get me, scum. The iron dragon slayer, Gajeel-sama will be your opponent." He declared, turning his fist back to normal. I couldn't help but roll my eyes at the squeal I heard, turning to see Ingrid beaten up with hearts in her eyes.

Elfman was the one to take up his offer. "A man…" He jumped up, pulling his beast arm back, and pushed forward slamming into Gajeel. "…is a man, even if he's scum!" Gajeel quickly blocked, and they were both at a standstill for a moment.

"Elfman, eh?" Gajeel said, before punching his iron fist forward. Elfman dodged the attack, Gajeel kicked with his iron mode but this time it was block by a new beast arm. "Not bad." He commented, mild impression in his voice.

"Men must live strong!" Elfman retaliated.

"Then, how do you like this?" From his leg came more iron poles, they spread out at every angle, hitting multiple people. Including our comrades.

I can't let this happen, this isn't what a guild is about. I can't let him hurt our nakama. To hell with loyalties.

I leaped from behind my hiding place, filled with adrenaline.

He used this shock to his advantage as he attacked the distracted Elfman, successfully knocking him out. "What are you looking at?!"

"Gajeel! Stop this!" I cried, running over to the man. His head turned to me, irritation cleaning his face.

"Gajeel, please. You're hurting our nakama!" I said, ignoring the mildly surprised stares from Fairy Tail.

"Get out of my way, Mona." He ordered, pushing me to the side with more force than I expected.

I tried again, standing right in front of him this time. "Gajeel, this isn't part of the job! Hurting our nakama isn't part of the job!" He stared at me in shock, most likely at the fact that I was defying the guild. I opened my mouth, ready to speak again, when a force collided with my gut. I looked down to see Gajeel's iron fist there, I looked at the man in shock. I never expected him to hurt me. My eyes widened at his expression. His eyes were cold, and he looked at me like I was yet another nuisance. It hurt.

My body slammed to the floor violently.

"He's horrible!"

"How could he hurt his nakama so easily!?"

I lay on the ground still consious, but unable to stand as I coughed up blood. I vaguely noted Natsu shouting the man's name in anger as they clashed, but I didn't pay attention to the brawl.

I thought we were friends! I knew he was a little violent and rude, but to think he would hurt me, purposely, with that emotionless expression on his face. Did he really not care about me? Was I really just a nuisance to him? Did these three years mean nothing…?

I felt tears threatening to fall, but I wouldn't let them. Of course I wanted to cry, but I had to keep them until later. I refused to cry in front of so many people.

My pity party was cut short by a crash that caused the whole room to turn silent. I moved my head slightly, unable to see what they were staring at, but at their words I understood the situation.

"Ah! What sorrowful feeling!" Aria, one of the Elemental Four cried, "the feeling of such a great mage losing!"

"Old man!"

"Gramps!"

"Master!"

The Fairy Tail members rushed to their masters side, looking him over. They spoke quietly, but the serious looks on their faces showed that they knew the situation.

The defeat of Makarov, caused a positive change on our side, however.

"Their master has been beaten!"

"Really?"

"Did you hear that? We can do this!"

"And we still have Gajeel and Elemental Four!" At this revelation, Phantom Lord's morale grew tenfold. Though, I was only saddened at the thought of the iron dragon slayer.

At the sight of the the fighting, it was obvious that their previous winning streak was now gone, and it seemed that Erza knew this too because she shouted, "Retreat! Everyone return to the guild!"

The shouts of defiance were shot down by the S class mage. "No! We cannot fight Jose without the master! We're retreating! This is an order!"

Finally. I couldn't deal with this fight any longer.

"So, did we capture that Lucy?" Gajeel asked, a little to loudly to be normal. He was sitting on the rafters again, speaking to Aria. This caught the attention of Natsu.

"It's sorrowful, the Lucy girl is being held at our headquarters now."

"W-what?" The fire dragon slayer asked in shock. "Gajeel!"

Gajeel only smirked at his reaction. Obviously pleased. "Let's settle this some other time, Salamander!"

I heard Erza's shouts of retreat as Fairy Tail ran out of the room. I already defied the masters wishes, I was basically a traitor. I might as well help with what I could.

My hand stretched out, latching on to a leg. I looked up, seeing a woman with brown hair; Cana. She made a move to release her leg, but I tightened my grip.

"Please, t-the headq-quarters-" I turned my head, coughing up more blood, "It's i-in the outskirts of town, t-tell Natsu."

I let go of her leg but she stayed, "Why are you telling me this?"

"I don't want this w-war." She looked at me warily for a moment, before running off. I watched her speak to Natsu, and I smiled, glad that I could help.

With that I let my head fall on the ground in exhaustion.


	10. Chapter 10

I was currently sitting on a table alone in the headquarters guild hall. Quickly after Fairy Tail left, all the injured had been treated and I had been one of them, due to Gajeel. I frowned, yet again, I was sure that Gajeel would have told the master about my betrayal, but he made to move to mention it. I was half expecting to get in trouble for it, but Jose didn't even spare a glance at me. Thankfully, no one had noticed my short conversation with Cana so for now I was safe.

However, the fight was not over and as soon as we were up to strength, we headed to Fairy Tail. I stared out of the window, looking at the moving view as we made our way to the destroyed building. Around me people were cheering and toasting to master and our S class mages. Despite his failure to keep Lucy a captive, Jose was in a normal mood which surprised me and worried me at the same time. It meant he had something up his sleeve.

The cheering around me increased all of a sudden, and we stopped moving, indicating that we had arrived at our destination.

A large grating sound hurt my ears and I peered out the window, only to be shocked but what I saw. How could I forget about Jupiter! The cheering had died down now, but the pleased looks on their faces annoyed me. Why was everyone okay with this? Fairy Tail were innocent!

I watched in horror as Erza ran forward, ex-quiping to a defensive armour.

I clenched my teeth, trying to stop myself from showing my dislike for the situation. If I was caught now I wouldn't be able to help.

"You look constipated."

I kept my eyes forward. "I'm not in the mood right now, Ingrid." I told the red head. This really wasn't the time for one of our childish arguments.

She made to action to leave, instead leaning on the wall next to me. "I know how you're feeling."

I turned my head this time, confused. "Don't think you got away with that little tip off to the Fairy woman. I'm not an idiot."

I stared at the woman. "You can't stop me."

"I'm not trying to." She turned back to Fairy Tail, "I know it's wrong. Even Gajeel is going to far."

I opened my mouth in shock at her words. She was serious! I had never once heard her disagree with Gajeel.

I looked out the window again. The power of Jupiter was still building up and before I knew it, the cannon had shot and the Erza took the explosion head on.

"Ha! There's no way she will have survived!"

"How stupid!"

The laughing invaded my ears and I held back my anger. These people, they're not my nakama. I could never be nakama with people who were so accepting of this meaningless fight! How could they not see this was wrong!

When the smoke cleared, a huge crater was revealed. I could barely see a spot of red at the end of the damage. However, that was the only evidence of the cannon. I sighed in relief, but I was still worried about Erza.

Jose's voice rang throughout the room from speakers. "After Makarov, now Erza is unable to fight." He commented conversationally. "You don't stand a chance now." I could hear the humour in his voice, "Hand over Lucy Heartfillia."

The order was followed by a number of shouts and protests, all saying the same thing; "We won't betray our nakama!"

"Hand her over!" He repeated, anger evident in his words, but Fairy Tail wouldn't give up. They wouldn't hurt Lucy.

I felt sad, I thought I had found nakama here. I thought Phantom Lord was my family. But after what Gajeel did… I felt like I'd lost my family. I was so dumb, I thought that Phantom were different to the one I knew from the anime. I thought they couldn't be so horrible, I didn't want to believe it.

"Then we'll fire an even bigger and stronger Jupiter! Now struggle in these fifteen minutes while we reload!" Jose shouted in anger again.

Jose's shadow army flew out of all the windows. "Now get a glimpse of hell, Fairy Tail! You only have two choices left; get killed by my soldiers, or die by Jupiter!"

The room cheered yet again. "Yeah! Let's kick some fairy ass!" They charged toward the doors, but we're stopped by Gajeel.

I noticed Ingrid looking like she had an internal turmoil.

"Gajeel! What are you doing."

"Tch, we don't need you guys. This is all part of masters plan. Stay here and watch the show." He grinned wickedly, "Me and the Elemental Four will be more than enough." with that he left to room, leaving everyone throughly disappointed.

"Well, if it's the masters wishes then it can't be helped." The others nodded in agreement.

To hell with that. I have to stop this before it gets even worse. I quickly bid my frenemy farewell before sneaking out of the main hall.

Now, what was I going to do? I needed to stay hidden, seeing as all non S class mages were ordered to stay out of the fight I would surely be stopped by someone. Where was I going? I could go and destroy Jupiter before it fired, but Totomaru was guarding that and Natsu would do that easily anyway. I hoped he wouldn't get too hurt by Natsu, he was a dork but he was still my friend.

I could help with stopping the rest Elemental Four, but I wouldn't stand a chance against Aria or Monsieur Sol and I couldn't hurt Juvia. The only thing left would be to stop Master Jose himself. Maybe I could persuade him to stop the war, and give up on the job too. I nodded and searched the halls for Jose, cursing that fact that I preferred the guild building in Oak Town. I had no idea where he or I was.

As I ran I could hear the countdown to Jupiter through the speakers. Each minute made me more tense, I knew that Natsu would stop it, but what was keepin him so long?

"1 minute."

God dammit! What the hell is he doing?

"30 seconds."

I skidded around a corner, where the hell is everyone! Master Jose is nowhere to be found!

"20 seconds."

I glanced out of the window, seeing the Fairy Tail mages fighting off Jose's ghost soilders.

"3… 2… 1."

I cringed, ready to hear the sound of destruction. When it passed I looked out the window to see Fairy Tail safe and sound. "Well done, Natsu!" I whispered to myself, before continuing my search.

All of a sudden, the ground started shaking and I felt the floor beneath me beginning to tilt to the side. I quickly clutched onto a door handle for dear life until the room was steady again. I was hanging from the door handle, which was now acting as the ceiling. Dropping to the row on doors I that were now the floor I shook off the surprise and ran off. This would make finding the master a whole lot harder.


	11. Chapter 11

The sound of Jose's voice sounded through the halls yet again. "You should bow down and beg for forgiveness, you brats." Damn! I can't tell where he is through the speakers! "Then you'll know your place. Know despair until your final moments."

The mechanical sounds caught my attention and I ran to a window, bending awkwardly to look through it, due to the building's change in structure. The large hands were moving, leaving a trail of magic behind.

"Don't tell me… Abyss Break!" I said in shock. If everything else wasn't too much, then this is what made us cross the line. How far did Jose want to go with this!

#

It had been a while since I saw Abyss Break being made, and I was still running. I had thought of the idea to get to the top, because I had figured out that Jose must be in the head of the giant. However, there were countless pathways in the building and I found myself lost.

I stopped running to catch my breath and cursed loudly. "For fucks sake! How am I meant to do anything in this fucking maze!" I screeched, grabbing my head in frustration.

Quickly shaking my irritation away I carried on running. There was no way I'd give up.

I ran through another door, and found the sight of Aria falling to the ground. Erza stood a few feet in front of him wearing her heaven's wheel armour as Natsu and Happy looked on from the side.

"You- you beat Aria-san!" I blurted out, completely in shock of the sight. Aria was the strongest member of Phantom Lord! How could she defeat him so easily? The fact that I knew the limit of his powers made it even more of a shock than watching the anime.

The three mages were on the defensive immediately, Erza pointed her swords at me while Natsu covered his fists in flames.

"You wanna fight?!" Natsu demanded.

I jumped in surprise, they looked very threatening. "No! The opposite actually!" I explained quickly, not wanting to be stuck in a fight with these two.

"What do you mean?" Erza asked, not lowering her weapons.

"Well, I want to stop this fight." I explained, looking at the ground. "This kind of fight, I don't believe in it. I want to stop my master." I declared, looking strongly at both wizards.

For the second time today, the ground started shaking. I yelped and spread my feet on the floor to steady myself. However, Erza suddenly ex-quipped back to her casual clothes and collapsed, Natsu running to catch her.

I ran a little forward, "Is she okay?" I asked, worried about the mage.

"She's still injured from taking Jupiter head on." Natsu said gravely, looking over her wounds.

"She managed to beat Aria, while she was already injured?!" I said in shock, looking at the woman.

"Don't underestimate Erza, she's super strong." He replied.

A ringing sounded before the voice of my master said, "All you Fairy Tail members out there! Please listen carefully to this voice." He said, sounding very happy. A high pitched scream of pain filled my ears coming from the speakers.

"That's Lucy!" Happy shouted, worry on his face.

"That bastard!" Natsu cursed.

"We have succeed in capturing Lucy." My master carried on, "So, our first objective is achieved."

"First?" I said in confusion, there was another reason for this? Why didn't he tell us?

"We now have but a single objective remaining, to slaughter the lot of you!"

My eyes widened at this. What was he doing?! This… this isn't Phantom Lord! Yeah, we're a little violent, but killing? That's not… that's just…

I put a hand on my mouth in shock, unable to keep my tears at bay. "Why…?" I choked out.

"Dammit!" Natsu said in frustration, "Lucy's…"

"N-Natsu…" I looked up, pushing away my feelings for a moment to see the mage. She looked like she was in a lot of pain, but she carried on speaking. "Release… your power…" Natsu gasped slightly, "There's still an untapped power sleeping within you. Believe in yourself make it through, and awaken it! The time is right. Lucy and the guild, protect them! Go, Natsu! You're the man that will surpass me!"

At these words, Natsu stood up, and released an impressive amount of magic power. He engulfed himself in flames that formed the shape of a dragon. I stared up in shock at the mage. He screamed, making his flames burn even brighter until I could barely see.

He ran out of the room, determined to beat Phantom Lord. All I could do was stare in awe of his magic.

"Are you not going too?" Erza asked, I looked at the woman and shook my head.

"I'd like to stay here, if you don't mind." I crawled towards her, "Here, let me help you."

She accepted my aid, and soon she was leaning against a pillar. I sat myself next to the mage.

"Are you okay?" I looked at the woman in shock.

"Eh…?" I replied, why was she saying this? I was a Phantom mage, why was she being nice?

He chuckled at my reaction, then turned serious. "I imagine your position isn't very pleasant. Having to chose between your nakama and what you think is right."

I stayed silent, mulling her words over. "I always thought they were my nakama. They _were_ my nakama. But, at one point, this fight changed them." the image of Gajeel's cold eyes entered my mind, "This isn't the guild I joined. This Jose… isn't the master I chose to follow."

"You know, someone like you would fit in well with Fairy Tail."

We sat in silence for a while until three pairs of footsteps caught my attention.

"Erza!" Mirajane shouted.

"Erza!" Gray copied.

"Looks like this place is wrecked too." Elfman commented, looking around.

"You guys…" Erza struggled, I sat up. Trying to see if she was still okay.

"When did you get here?" Gray asked worried about his nakama. "Why is a Phantom mage with you?"

"She's fine, she's an ally." Erza answered, vouching for me. At this I was quickly overlooked.

Elfman looked at the unconscious Aria. "H-hey! Don't tell me you fought someone in your condition!" He reprimanded.

"What were you thinking? Which means…" Gray paused.

"You were the one that defeated Aria!" Mira finished, as shocked as I was at this fact.

"I didn't want you to see me in such a pitiful state…" Erza said, a smile on her face, "Looks like I've got a long way to go, huh?"

The atmosphere suddenly turned tense, as all five of us felt a strong magic power.

"What's this?" Gray asked, shock on his face.

"This is…!" Mira started.

"The presence of death!" Erza said, as serious as everyone else.

"What's this feeling?" Gray questioned again.

"I feel a chill unfitting on a man!" Elfman complained.

"Malice is clouding the air!" Mirajane declared, fear showing in her voice.

However, I knew what it really was. "No, it's…" I turned my head to the direction of clapping. "…Master!"


	12. Chapter 12

_However, I knew what it really was. "No, it's…" I turned my head to the direction of clapping. "…Master!"_

"My my, well done all you Fairy Tail mages and…" her turned his direction to me, "…traitor."

I flinched at the venom in his voice.

"I never honestly expected you to provide me with quite this much entertainment." He said conversationally, his dark magic growing around him. "Destroying Jupiter, defeating Elemental Four, and even bringing my magical giant to its knees." He listed off, still acting very casual.

"Master Jose!" Erza shouted, seriousness on her voice.

"This guy…" Elfman began, studying the man.

"He's the master of Phantom!" Gray finished off.

"Well then, I must thank you for providing me with all this entertainment."

"Elfman!" Gray shouted.

"Yeah!" The take over mage replied, understanding his nakama.

Before they could attack, I stepped in front of them both.

"Hey Phantom girl! What are you doing!" Elfman complained. I ignored him, however and stared strongly at my master.

"Master! Please stop this!" I begged, "This isn't needed! The mission was to return Lucy Heartfillia to her family. Why do you want to hurt Fairy Tail?"

"Why? Because we're stronger! We're the number one guild, not them! We need to reclaim our glory!" He shouted hysterically.

"So you want to kill innocent people to become number one?! That's not the Phantom Lord I joined! You're destroying us! This isn't a guild I want to be part of!" I screamed, overcome but my emotions. I couldn't let him do this!

"If that's your wish, then I'll gladly accept!" He raised his arm at me, aiming at my stomach, I flinched, ready to block when instead I felt nothing. I looked down at my body, noticing my guild mark was slowly dissappearing. I stared at my hip in shock, helpless to stop it. I clawed at it, as I'd to return the mark to its original state but it was no use. When my skin was completely clear of the purple mark, I raised my head. He was so pleased as if he took joy in my sorrow.

"M-master…" I choked out, tears running down my face. I just stood there, staring at my former master. I wanted Phantom to change! I didn't want to leave, never! I fell to my knees, unable to block the magic attack that was flying towards me. When it hit me, I was pushed harshly across the room until I was cornered against the wall. Finally the magic force stopped, and I crumpled on the ground. I didn't feel pain, however, I felt numb. First Gajeel, then the rest of the guild and now Master Jose!

For the second time today, I was on the ground feeling sorry for myself. The last thing I saw before blacking out was the sight of Gray and Elfman crashing to the ground.

#

My body ached. This was the first thing I registered when I awoke, the second being how dark the room was and the third being the sight of Erza lifted in the air by Jose's magic.

I observed her struggle, trying to get up and help. However, my wounds were too much and I could barely move. I stared worryingly at the trapped mage, but my eyes widened when I noticed something moving in the corner of my eye. I turned and saw a sword lift from the rubble, my eyes followed it until the weapon halted pointed behind Erza.

I realized what she was doing. "Erza! Stop!" I screamed. My heart was racing as the sword inched closer to her armour, so close to piercing her when suddenly Jose's magic was stopped. The purple disappeared, the room lit up and Erza was slowly returned to the ground, not a scratch on her or her armour.

I was relieved, but confused at the same time. My searching of the room stopped when I heard and old voice. "You've spilled too much blood here." I looked in the direction of the voice to find Makarov standing in a large rock. "The blood of children, from both sides." He glanced at me for a moment. "Thanks to the pitiful parents the children have gone through pain and she'd many tears." I managed to push myself to my hands and knees. "You cannot call yourself a guild master when you so easily hurt your own children!" I saw the look of pure anger on Makarovs face. "This has gone on long enough."

Jose, however, was not phased by his fury. He summoned his magic power, his eyes turning black and yellow. "You wish to cause a cataclysm?" He taunted.

Makarov replied by summoning his own power and declaring; "If it's necessary for my guild!"

Jose was the first to attack, however Makarov blocked them withe ease. "You must all leave this place!" He ordered the remaining Fairy Tail mages.

Gray and Elfman had woken up. "Master!" Gray said.

"Why are you here?" Elfman questioned.

Makarov didn't reply, instead Erza spoke. "We should do as he says!" She ran toward Gray, Elfman and the now awake Mirajane. "Let's go!"

"But…" Gray argued.

"Now that you're here before me, I have to interest on weaklings." Jose stated, "But I'll make sure to slaughter them all when I'm done!" At those words I cursed. How could I have joined such a guild? How could I have followed such a horrible person?! How could I forget how evil he was?

"If we stay here, we'll only be a burden the the master." Erza stated, trying to persuade Gray as Mira and Elfman were already heading to the exit. "You too, Mona! We're leaving!"

I nodded, agreeing. Now that Makarov was here, ther was nothing else to do. The fight was almost over. I forced myself to stand up and ran out of the building with the Fairy Tail mages.

I looked up at the sky to see a large lighting bolt hit the room we were all previously occupying. The ground started shaking, this time even worse as if there were an earthquake.

When we got out of the guild I was met by a few suspicious looks from the few mages who recognized me, but I ignored them and headed straight to Gray. "Hey, you fought Juvia, right?" I asked.

"Yeah, that water woman?" He replied, glancing to look at me. I looked back at him.

"Is she okay? I mean, she's not badly injured is she?" I questioned, I had been worrying about her for a while.

"She's fine. Just unconscious."

I sighed, relieved that she wasn't badly hurt. I may not be part of Phantom Lord anymore, but she's still my best friend and nakama.

All of a sudden, a bright light rushed towards us. It was bright and almost blinding. I blinked a few times in shock. "What is that?" I asked, though I wasn't worried. I felt a strange comfort in the blinding light. It felt like home. Something I hadn't felt in three years.

"Fairy Law." Erza stated.

"Fairy Law?" Gray repeated in confusion.

"Holy light that slays darkness." She informed the oblivious parties, "It's a super magic that can be counted as one of the legendary spells."

Everyone look on in awe of the magic, until it cleared. There was a silence, before it settled in; Fairy Tail had won. Cheers filled the area, tears of happiness, shouts of joy. People were hugging each other and smiling. However, I felt very out of place, I was happy the fight was over, and no one got hurt without deserving it but…

I placed a hand on my hip, where the guild mark used to be located. I couldn't help but feel saddened by todays events, and there was also my issue with Gajeel.

I couldn't cheer in happiness. My day was filled with too much pain.


	13. Chapter 13

It had been been two weeks since the incident with Fairy Tail and I had been working solely at the shop since we had been released by the Magic Council. Not long after Fairy Tail won, the rune knights and quickly arrested all mages involved in the battle for questioning. I was kept there for a few days, they asked me everything I knew and I answered truthfully. It eventually got boring, but I was one of the first to be excused and I headed straight home.

However, I had gone straight to my room and stayed here since then. I came out to work my shifts, but that was it. I didn't want to talk about what happened, but Arnost didn't seem to get the hint.

There was yet another knock on my door. "Mona, Juvia came again today." I ignored him. She had come over a few times in the past two weeks, along with Totomaru, but I couldn't bear facing either of them. When I helped Fairy Tail, I betrayed them in the process. I didn't regret my actions, I just wish I didn't mean I had to feel like this.

"You can't keep feeling sorry for yourself forever."

I shoved my head into my pillows to drown out his voice. I knew I was being stupid, but I couldn't help it. All I could think about was the image of my mark dissappearing, everytime I saw the clear patch of skin it broke my heart. It was very hard to avoid however, as most of my wardrobe consisted of clothing that made sure it was on show. Soon after joining Phantom Lord I decided I wanted to show it off, and now I was regretting that decision.

Phantom Lord…

I remember when I joined I was really scared of everyone. All I knew about them was very biased from the anime, but they changed my mind straight away. As I got to know them, as I started caring about them, even Ingrid, my memories of the anime blurred, and I was left trusting them.

Even Jose.

I hated it. I hated that I trusted him, I hated that he hurt me so much. I never thought they would mean this much to me. I never knew the thought of Phantom turning their backs on me would affect me so much.

"Mona, please. Open the door." I was shocked at the gentleness of Arnost's voice. So shocked that before I realized what I was doing the door was open and I was facing the only person I knew I had left.

He looked startled, as if he was expecting to be ignored.

"What?" I asked a little to harshly, "I opened the door."

"Talk to me. What happened with the Fairy Tail fight?"

I wanted to say no. I wanted to shut the door in his face, but he was the only person I could talk to. Phantom kicked me out, Gajeel didn't care and I couldn't even think of Juvia and Totomaru without feeling like I screwed them over.

So, against my own wishes, I told him. I told him about the mission, about how Jose removed my mark and hurt me, how I betrayed Phantom, how Gajeel hurt me.

At the end of it, I was sat on the floor, exhausted from letting my feelings out.

"I- I wish I never joined Phantom Lord." I said quietly.

"Don't say that." Arnost reprimanded, I looked up at him in shock. "You can't go around wishing this and wishing that. You can't change the past. You may have made decisions in your life that ended badly but never regret them."

"But, if I never joined, then I wouldn't feel this way." I argued. He swiftly hit me on the head.

"There are both good things and bad things in the world. The good things don't always balance out the bad things, but equally, the bad things don't spoil the good things. Remember the good things that you wouldn't have experienced without this incident. You understand?"

I mulled his words over in my head.

Juvia's rare smiled came to mind. _"You really want to be friends with Juvia?"_

Totomaru's stupid grin appeared. _"Hey, Mo-chan. Go on a date with me?"_

Ingrid's voiced echoed in my mind. _"You really think I'm gonna give Gajeel to some little girl?!"_

I smiled. "Yeah, I think I know what you mean."

#

After Arnost's pep talk I decided to stop moping around. I had come to terms with being wrong about Phantom Lord, and I was finally able to think about the guild without tearing up like a wimp. I had not seen many of my friends after the fight, but I had thought about them a lot. Ingrid and Totomaru were no where to be found, I assumed that they had carried on with their lives, maybe even joined another guild, but I hoped they were alright. I knew where I could find Juvia, she was the one person I'd seen, and I intended to go to Akane with her, one of my aims in this world was to stop Simon's death so I was getting ready to go to the Tower of Heaven. Finally, Gajeel was the one I thought about the most. I was angry at him. He completely disregarded what a guild meant and attacked our fellow members, he hurt me when I tried to calm him down, he betrayed me. I might forgive him, I was never one to old grudges and I knew that he would end up appreciating his nakama in Fairy Tail, but it didn't change the fact that I was very angry.

I sighed, zipping my bag shut and throwing it over my shoulder. I had packed anything that I thought I would need at the Tower of Heaven, and I was ready to go.

"Arnost! I'm off!" I shouted, quickly stepping out of the door to meet Juvia. I had failed to convince him to let me go, as he was adamant about me staying and working. So instead I thought I'd run out so he couldn't stop me.

Thankfully it worked.

"Hey Juvia, are you ready?" I inquired, adjusting the straps of my bag.

"Yes! I'm so excited! I can not wait to see my Gray-sama!" She replied energetically. When I'd seen her she was more than happy to recount her fight with him, which was more Juvi-fied than the original, and proceeded to invite me to go with her. On the terms that I wouldn't flirt with him, though.

"Great, let's get going then."

* * *

 **I have a question concerning the anime fillers and OVA arcs. Would you prefer me to involve them on this story, meaning everything would be on here slotted in with the canon manga, or if you would like me to group them in a different story?**

 **I like the idea of making a different story because I'd be able to prioritize the canon arcs and have the filler as a fun side piece?**

 **Tell me what you think and also, please review!**


	14. Chapter 14

"Gray-sama, you're so daring."

I chuckled under my breath at Juvia's actions.

We had just arrived at Akane resort and straight away, Juvia had her stalker mode turned on. Before I knew it, I was sitting on the beach in my swimsuit a few steps away from the Fairy Tail members.

I turned back to my notebook and continued to read the contents. Since I'd decided to go with Juvia I had been re-reading all of the filled up journals I'd owned in the past three years, looking for anything about the arc which was about to happen. There was quite a lot about the arcs so I mentally applauded how prepared my past-self was. I needed to be ready with what was happening.

First there was Shou, Wally, Milliana, Simon and of course, Jellal. I knew there powers and didn't deem them important to think of as the enemy because they were innocent. What I was worried about was the three assassins that Jellal ired. One guy had hair magic, much like mine, and could make people go to his side like with what he'll do with Juvia. There was the owl man who ate people to absorb their powers. Finally there was the samurai woman who would fight Erza. Along with this I had things about how the events of this arc would go.

I hoped that my information would be enough to keep things on line with how they should be.

"You should go talk to him." I said to my bashful companion. We were currently standing quite close to Fairy Tail's resident stripper, who surprisingly had kept his clothes on.

"Ah! Are you sure?" Juvia asked, looking very bashful as she gazed at the man.

"Yeah sure, I think I-" But I paused after seeing her sat next to Gray, already in a conversation with him. With a sigh I walked away, looking for my destination. I giggled at the sight of Happy and Natsu getting very heated over the number 17.

Walking up to a crowded poker table I took a seat after noticing a familiar pair of mages a few seats away from them.

The red-headed woman spoke first. "Right now I feel like I can't lose no matter who I'm up against."

"Yeah!" was her blonde companions reply.

A young man stepped in to replace the previous dealer. The spikey blond hair on his head greatly contrasted with his dark skintone, he wore one long earring and had a strange mark on his face. "If thats the case, why don't we enjoy a special game." He suggest while shuffling the cards with skill.

Erza looked at him in mild confusion then down at the cards in shock, I peeked over a man's shoulder to see the word 'death' spelled out with cards.

"A game where your life would be at stake, Erza-nee." Shou said threateningly.

I slowly pulled my hair from its bun so I could easily fight if necessary, though I was a little hesitant on hurting any of Erza's friends.

"You're Shou… Shou, right?" Erza asked in shock, as if this was the last thing she expected, though, as I thought about it, I'm sure it was.

"It's been a while, Nee-san." He replied cooly.

The two exchanged a serious conversation, with Lucy adding in confused questions here and there. Suddenly, darkness flooded the room, interrupting their moment.

I quickly place a hand to the hilt of one of my twin daggers, getting ready to feel some kind of attack, but if never came.

A gunshot echoed through the now empty room. "A gunshot?" Lucy asked in worry, covering her ears.

"What happened?"

"Darkness Magic." I answered, remembering Simon's abilities.

The blonde mage jumped at the sound of my voice. "You're from Phantom Lord! What are you doing here?" she asked almost suspiciously.

"I"m here to help you, but where's Shou?" I said bringing attention to the missing person.

shou "So, I guess you're the one he was talking about."

I frowned in confusion. "What do you mean? Who was talking about me?" I asked, Jellal maybe? But why? Could he know…?

The mage ignored me in favour of turning to Erza instead. He allowed a myriad of cards drop to the floor, revealing the trapped civilians.

erza "This is…!"

lucy, "there are people inside the cards!"  
shou "strange?"

erza, "magic?"

shou, "yeah, i can also use it now nee-san"

erza "you, how did…"

a girly laugh, of milliana, is heard and lucy and mona are bound by her magic.

erza "lucy! mona!"

milliana, "feeling spiffy?"  
Eventually the rest of Erza's friends returned. They talked for a while, leaving Lucy very confused until Erza explained the situation. We were both left useless as Wally shot Erza and took her, along with Happy, away to the Tower of Heaven. Abandoning Mona and Lucy, their binds tightening by the second.

"Geez!" Lucy complained, "I'm definitely gonna free myself of this thing!" After a few seconds of rolling around, her keys fell on the floor in her reach, "Yes!" she started fumbling with they keys but was stopped by my words.

"That's not gonna work." I informed her, sweatdropping at her actions.

"Why not?" Lucy moaned childishly.

"Milliana's abilities, they cancel out any magic. there's no use trying."

Lucy, ignoring me, then proceeded to summon her Celestial Spirit, "Open! Gate of the Crab! Cancer!"

After a few moments of silence, nothing happened, "I told you." I says childishly.

"I guess you were right…" she says dejectedly, her body suddenly jumps slightly and she makes a noise of pain. "What now?"

"Ah, so sorry." A small voice says, coming from one of the many cards.

"Was that you just now?" she asked, looking down at one of the cards, which I couldn't see.

After Lucy figured out the details of Shou's card magic, she persuaded the Akane mascot to cut her free and eventually the both of us were free.

I stood up, stretching my arms. "Damn. Milliana's magic hurts more than I expected." I say, more to myself that the blonde beside her.

I blink, noticing that Lucy was now gone. Looking around I see her retreating body running to a random destination, and with a quick plea for her to wait, I run to catch up.  



	15. Chapter 15

When I finally caught up to the speedy blonde, I found her crouched next to Gray's ice double. "Gray, get a hold of yourself."

I sat beside her as she grabbed his shoulder and tried to wake him up.

"He's cold…" All of a sudden, the body lost colour and turned to a ice statue of the ice-make mage. Lucy screamed in shock.

"It's not really him, he should be around here somewhere." I informed her, looking for my water mage friend, Lucy didn't seem to listen as she began trying to put him back to together after it broke to pieces.

"Please don't worry." Juvia said, materializing from water.

"You're one of elemental four!" she said, putting a hand to her keys just in case.

I ran over to my friend and began examining her, "Are you hurt?"

"Juvia is fine, Mona." She reassured me, so I leaned back to talk with the other two mages.

"Wait Lucy!" the man appeared beneath Juvia, surrounded by her water, "She's no longer our enemy."

"That is right. Gray-sama was inside Juvia." I sweatdropped at the wording of her sentence.

"I-inside?" Lucy says, a slight blush on her cheeks.

"Not inside you, but inside Juvia!" she stared threateningly at the spirit mage, towering over the blonde to intimidate her.

"Yeah… thats right…" Lucy replied in fear.

"When everything went black, I created a double and was going to see how things would work out, but…" Gray's explaination was interrupted by Juvia.

"To avoid being discovered by the enemy, Juvia protected Gray-sama with her Water Lock."

"That wasnt necessary, you let him get away!" at his words, Juvia became very upset.

"Its alright Juvia." I consoled her, "He just wanted to fight him. It's nothing against you."

"You're here too? Are there any other Phantom members here?" Gray questioned, finally paying attention to me. I shook my head.

"Just me and Juvia, we came here together." He seemed to deem this a good enough reason because he turned to Lucy.

"Lucy, where's Natsu and the rest?"

"I dont know where Natsu is, but Happy and Erza have been…" she was unable to finish her sentence because a large amout of fire appeared in the sky.

"Natsu!" Gray and Lucy said at the same time, urging us to run over to the dragon slayer.

"What happened?" Gray asked, looking at the hysterical pinkette.

Natsu went straight into complaining, not even acknowledging Gray's question, "What normal person would shoot a gun into somebody's mouth, huh? That hurt! it could've done some real damage!" I sweatdropped, it should have done some real damage, you're just a monster Natsu…

Lucy voiced my thoughts when she said, "No, i think a normal person would have kicked the bucket already."

"That is salamander for you." Juvia agreed.

"He's a monster." I added to the mix.

"THAT BLOCKY BASTARD!" Natsu shouted in rage, causing me to jump in surprise. He suddenly sped off in a random direction, "I WONT LET YOU GET AWAY WITH THIS."

"Follow him!" Gray ordered, and we jogged for a few moments before Lucy stopped us.

Soon enough we were chasing after the fire mage.

#

So, that's how I ended up on a boat with Gray, Lucy, Juvia and Natsu, in the middle of the ocean.

"WHERE THE HELL ARE WE?!" Gray shouted in anger, eyes bulging as he searched the sea.

"It appears as though we have been drifting aimlessly for some time.." Juvia stated calmly.

"Hey Natsu… you sure it's around here?" Lucy asked her sick friend.

"Y-y…yeah." He choked out through gags leaning out of the boat.

"We're relying on that nose of yours! Get a grip!" Scolds the ice make wizard.

"Juvia does not believe that he would dare dash Gray-sama's hopes…" the woman says soberly.

I sighed, we had been here for a long, long time. I couldn't even look through my journals to pass the time at the risk of someone seeing it…

"Damn it! I can't believe they took Erza and Happy away while we were unconscious," Gray screamed out in frustration, "How sad is that…"

Beside me, Juvia was looking down in sadness, "An accurate assessment… to think a mage as able as Erza-san would be defeated…"

Immediately, Gray shot towards Juvia, "Ain't no way she was beaten. You don't know the first thing about Erza." Giving a harsh glare in her direction.

"Please… please forgive me!"

"Hey!" I spoke up, placing a hand on Juvia's shoulder in comfort, a silent warning in my voice. He may be from Fairy Tail, but he upset Juvia.

"Gray! Calm down!" Lucy ordered, the mage reluctantly complied, sitting down. "Erza mentioned something about those guys being her former nakama." She continued in thought. "Face it, when it comes to Erza… no one knows much about her at all…"

We returned to silence again, the atmosphere tense from Lucy's words.

I looked up in anticipation at the sound of Lucy's voice exclaiming, "It's a tower! That must be, the Tower of Heaven!?"

"The R-system..." I said, to myself, in wonder.

When we landed I, along with Lucy, Gray and Natsu, crowded behind a large boulder while Juvia went on her own to check for something under ground.

"That's a lot of guards." Gray said, stating the obvious as we stared at the many guards protecting the seemingly only entrance the the tower.

"Who cares? Let's plow through 'em!" Natsu declared rather loudly, causing me to crouch down further in fear of being seen.

"No way!" Lucy butted in, just barely restraining the ball of anger. I noticed her struggle so I helped, grabbing his arm to hold him firmly in place.

"They've got Happy and Erza. If we do something stupid, we'll put them in danger." Lucy warned him seriously, but this didn't discourage him as he continued his struggle. "Still, that tower thing is just ahead. If they find us here we won't stand a chance."

A sound of movement in water pulled our attention behind us, turning in unison we saw Juvia emerging from the sea.

"Juvia has found another way into the tower's basement through the water." She informed us.

"Seriously? Great job!" Gray praised with grin.

I laughed as Juvia proceeded to shove Gray's words in Lucy's face. "The one who was praised was not you. It was Juvia."

"Uh-huh." Lucy replied, sweatdropping at the woman.

"It's a journey of about 10 minutes underwater, but holding your breath for that long won't be a problem, right?" The rain woman said, stating the impossible as if it were a stroll on the street.

"10 minutes is nothing!" Monster number one answered.

"Yep!" Monster number two agreed.

"Of course it's impossible!" Lucy answered, being much more realistic than the others.

"Yeah, Juvia. I can't even hold my breath for a few minutes without feeling dizzy…" I explained.

Juvia raised a hand, created a hollow sphere of water, "Please wear this. It uses water to enclose your head with oxygen, you can even breathe underwater."

"Ooooh!" Natsu said in wonder, placing the sphere in place. "By the way, who are you?"

I sighed, Natsu could really be an idiot.


	16. Chapter 16

Emerging from the water I looked around the basement, seeing a few wooden bridges crossing above me and I saw that I was surrounded by rocks.

I swam over to the nearest rock, seeing the others, and climbed on the rough surface. Taking Juvia's water off, I stepped over to stand near the rest of the group.

"this is the basement of the tower?" Gray asked, talking in his surroundings.

"Erza and Happy and somewhere here." Lucy stated as she twisted the water out of her clothes.

I looked down at my own bikini, and started rummaging around in my backpack for some clothes.

I was halfway through pulling out a t shirt from my bag when a voice from above us grabbed my attention. Peering up, I saw a number of guards standing on a bridge above us, one of the shouted, "Who the hell are you guys?!"

"Who the hell are we?!" Natsu shouted, launching at a support beam with a fire fist, causing the bridge to fall, "Don't you know good fighters when you see them?!" the guards were left in a mess due to salamanders actions, "We're from Fairy Tail, morons!"

At this, the room erupted into a battle. I looked up, seeing a group of guards charging after me. Smirking, I dodged an attack, pulling out my tonfa blasters I shot at the group, then turned to a guard trying to sneak up on me. Without a struggle I slammed my forearm into his face, the hard metal of my weapon making the attack more affective.

When the battle was over I was able to grab a few seconds to dress myself, a simple red t-shirt and short. I just finished lacing up my combat boots when a creak came from the ceiling.

"Some sort of door just opened up there!" Natsu said, at his words my eyes followed up a tall ladder until I saw the open door.

"They're telling us to come up?" Gray asked, rightly suspicious of the 'welcoming' gesture.

"He's playing with us." I said, stepping towards the ladder. "This is all a game to him." When I was done I began climbing up.

"Wait! Then it's a trap!" Lucy said, against doing something potentially dangerous.

"It's not like we've got any other way in." I replied and carried on up the ladder.

"BLOCKY BASTARD! WHERE ARE YOU?!"

"For god's sake, this is enemy headquarters!" Lucy reprimanded Natsu, placing her hand on his mouth to keep him quiet, "Don't yell so loud!"

"We already made so much ruckus downstairs, there's no point in sneaking around now." Gray advised, looking calm despite the situation.

"Plus, this door here was opened…" Juvia added, "Probably from elsewhere, using magic."

"Basically, they've known we were here all along." I summed up, Jellal was one sneaky bastard.

"So it's easy to imagine why they'd open the door for us." Lucy concluded on thought.

"It's like Mona said…" Gray said with a serious expression, grabbing my attention, "He's playing with us."

"Playing…" Lucy parroted.

"Ah, what's with that outfit?" Gray asked, acknowledging Lucy's glamorous wardrobe change.

She smiled and struck a pose. "This is an outfit from the Spirit World! It's uncomfortable to wear wet clothes, so I asked Cancer to bring it here to me." She explained. "Juvia is used to the water, and Mona brought an extra outfit, but I don't see how you guys can wear such soaked clothes."

"Why? It dries quickly like this." Gray answered, wafting his clothes near Natsu, the fire mage currently engulfed in flames. I laughed, for two guys who say they're not friends, the fit each other quite well.

"That's because you have a drier right next to you!" She shouted back, eyes bulging at the funny sight.

Our comedic scene was cut short by another cluster of guards charging at us. "Found them! The intruders!"

We all returned to our battle forms, but were shocked when they were all taken down with ease by none other than Erza Scarlet.

"Erza!"

"You're okay!"

The group exclaimed at the sight of the woman. I marveled at her skills, starstruck by her coolness.

However, requip mage didn't have the same relieved emotions at her friends. "Why… are you guys here?" She asked, shocked at the sight.

"Why?!" Natsu started, not noticing the tense expression on her face. "If we let these arrogant punks walk all over us, what would that do to Fairy Tail's reputation?! I have a score to settle with that blocky guy!"

Erza's shocked expression then turned to myself, and then to Juvia. Confusion appeared on her face.

"Um… Juvia is…" Juvia said, feeling uncomfortable under the woman's state.

I could only force out an awkward "Hello." to the red head.

"Go back." I jumped at the strength in her voice. "You guys shouldn't be here."

"But Erza…" Lucy began, only to be interrupted by a very heated Natsu.

"Happy's been taken here too! We won't leave here without him!" He objected, refusing to leave both of his nakama.

"Happy?" She asked, "Could it be Milliana…"

"Where is that guy?!" Natsu demanded from Erza.

"I don't know." She replied in defeat.

"Alright I get it!"

"You get what?!" Gray asked, shocked at the both of them.

"I get that Happy is waiting for us to save him!" with these words, Natsu stormed out of the hall to search for his friend.

"Natsu-san!" Juvia said in shock.

I stared at his retreating back, feeling slightly awkward at the situation I was in, despite putting myself there in the first place.

Lucy and Gray were about to follow after him, but were cut off by Erza.

"You can't!" She ordered, holding her sword in from of them. "Go back!"

"Erza!"

"Milliana loves all things cat-related. She's not going to hurt Happy. I'll be responsible for bringing Natsu and Happy back." She informed, "You all, leave immediately!"

"We can't do that!" Lucy objected, "We're not leaving here unless we're all together!"

"This is my fight. I don't want to involve you guys any further." She argued.

"We're already completely involved. You saw how Natsu was." countered the ice make mage.

"Erza, what is this tower? And who's Jellal?" Lucy asked seriously. After seeing her friends silent reaction the blonde carried on. "If you don't want to tell us, that's fine… Those guys said they were your former nakama, but we're your nakama now! And we'll always be here for you no matter what or when."

I smiled, I hoped when this was over I'd be able to form bonds like this in Fairy Tail.

"Go… go back…" Erza choked out, obviously touched by Lucy's speech.

"Erza…"

"This isn't like you at all." Gray stated, feigning annoyance. "Why don't you spare this crap and just say, 'come with me' like you usually do. We will help you. Even for you its okay to be scared once in a while."

When he finished, Erza turned to face us. We were all very surprised to see tears in her eyes. I could see the pity on my face at that moment as I felt sadness for her, and what she went through.

She wiped away her tears. "This fight… no matter whether we win or lose… I'm going to be gone from the public world."

"Eh? What does that mean?!" Gray asked, stunned by her words.

"This is the inevitable future. So…" She clenched her teeth, as if forcing herself to tell us. "So, I'll tell you everything while I'm still here."

I looked at Juvia to see she looked really awkward, and she didn't seem to comfortable with hearing something so personal about Erza. I felt the same, despite already knowing her past, I felt like I was invading on this moment.

"This tower is called 'the Tower of Heaven'. Also known as the 'R-system'." Erza started.

And so, Erza began explaining her history. 


	17. Chapter 17

**Heyoo! Here's chapter 17, I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

When Erza finished talking, room was left in shocked silence. I clenched my teeth, after three years to forget the details along with Erza herself telling me I could feel my old dislike for Jellal returning. I didn't care that he couldn't control it, I didn't care that he redeems himself, because right now he was the same boy that hurt Erza all those years ago and caused her so much pain.

"I am… going go fight Jellal…" She stated through tears.

"Hold on Erza. That 'Zeref' you just mentioned is…" Gray trailed off.

"Ah… he's called the most brutal and cruel dark mage in the history of the Magic world." Erza explained.

"In-indeed." Lucy agreed, stuttering due to the serious topic. "The monster summoned by Lullaby was created from the Demon Book of Zeref."

"Not only that I'm afraid Deloria could have been another part of the Demon Book of Zeref." Erza continued, causing Gray to react in horror. "Zeref has the power to create these terrifying monsters with little effort."

"That's the Zeref Jellal plans to revive?" Juvia asked in fear of the possibilities.

"I'm not sure what his motive is… according to Jella- my old nakama, when Zeref is revived, they would become rulers of 'Paradise'."

"When you put it that way, I really can't understand the actions of your old friends." Lucy says, wanting to understand the situation better. "They said that you were a traitor, but the real traitor seems to be Jellal, right?"

"I don't know what Jellal has been filling their heads with since I escaped the Tower of Heaven." Erza bows her head, a guilty expression on her face, "But I did abandon them for 8 whole years. I guess that's kind of betrayal."

I had to stop myself from telling her otherwise. I wanted to comfort her, but I wasn't her nakama and it was barely my place to do so, and the others were already confused with how I acted like I knew the future, I needed tone it down a little bit.

"But, that was because Jellal threatened you with your friends' lives! You couldn't get close!" Lucy argued, trying to get Erza to think realistically, "How could those guys blame…"

But Erza would have none of it as she cut her off. "That's enough Lucy, if I can just take care of Jellal, it'll all be over."

The room few into silence, yet again, until a voice made us turn around. "Nee-san." Standing there and looking very shocked, was Shou. "Those words… what do you mean by them?"

"Shou…" Erza said in sympathy.

He suddenly started shouted, scaring me enough to make me jump. "All that nonsense you just said are you just trying to pry sympathy from your friends?!" He was hysterical, as he screamed at the woman, "Don't joke around! The truth is nothing like that! 8 years ago, weren't you the k e who bombed the ship everyone was on and then ran off by yourself? If Jellal hadn't discovered your betrayal we would have all been blown to bits! Jellal told everyone! This is the fate of those who cannot handle the proper form of magic! You went man with your new power and gave up everything to do with us!"

"Jellal told you that?"

"Does that sound like something the Erza you knew would have done?"

At the words of Gray and Lucy, Shou began sweating. You could see the inner turmoil that was talking with place at that moment. "You, you fools don't understand anything! You don't know anything about us!" It sounded like he was trying to persuade himself, rather than the others. "I was saved thanks to Jellal! We built this tower for the last 8 years! For Jellal!" He finally calmed down, he next words coming out as a whisper as he started realizing the truth. "All this has been a lie?" His shouting returned. "If Nee-san is right then everything Jellal said was a lie?!"

"That's right." Confirmed the new arrival to the group, Simon. At the sight of him I smiled, hopefully he'll make both Erza and Shou feel better, and also because I had a little soft spot for him.

"Bastard," Gray said, going to attack. However, surprisingly, Juvia held him back.

"Hold on Gray-sama! That time before, he knew that was only an ice dummy of Gray-sama but he attacked it anyway. No way a dark magician wouldn't have detected something like that." Juvia explained.

I nodded, vouching for my friend.

"Confirming this is one for the reasons Juvia came along."

"No wonder you're one of the famous Phantom's Elemental Four." Simon commented, acknowledging and admitting his actions. "I didn't plan of killing you then. In order to fool Shou and the others I was just going to knock you out. With the ice double I was able to make your death seem a little more realistic."

"You were just trying to trick us?" Shou asked, looking betrayed.

"You, Wally, Milliana, everyone had been fooled by Jellal. I waited for the right time, and pretended to believe him also." He explained to Shou.

Erza looked at him in shock, "Simon, you…" She couldn't believe that he had trusted her all this time.

"I believed Erza from the beginning." He concluded sheepishly, scratching his face with a blush. I had to suppress an aw at his behavior. "It's been that way for 8 years."

The two friends embraced each other. "I'm so glad I was finally able to see you again. Erza." He confessed.

"Simon…"

I smiled brightly at the touching scene. Discretely wiping away a tear at the sight. It reminded me of my friends back home, Dawn and everyone, despite accepting my new life here I still longed to see them again.

After Shou had broken down again, Erza calmed him down and helped him understand.

"I've been waiting for this moment." Simon said, continuing his plans to defeat Jellal. "Now that all of these powerful mages are gathered in one place." I briefly wondered if I was involved in that assessment. "We'll fight Jellal with out combined strength." He declared. "But first we need go stop Salamander and Wally's impending battle."

"Wait a minute." I said, stepping forward. My voice was quiet after so long without speaking. "I need to know something." Simon turned to me, indicating that he was listening. I could feel the stares of the other mages around me. "At the casino, Shou said I was the one he was talking about. Was that Jellal? What does he know about me?" If Jellal knew where I was from, I was worried what he would do to get information in his current state.

Simon bowed his head. "Yes, It was Jellal. He seems to be interested in what you know, concerning the future."

I gulped. Shit, he knew about me. But, they didn't take me with them along with Erza and Happy, so that should mean that I'm not really important, right?

"If he's interested in what I know, why didn't he take me along with Erza and Happy?" I asked.

"He told us not to worry about you… He said that, without a doubt, you'd come here on your own." I was shocked. He must know quite a lot, considering he knew I'd want to come here.

I gulped again. I needed to be careful in this place.

* * *

 **As always, please review! It really gives me motivation to write more, and I really appreciate them!**


	18. Chapter 18

Soon we were running through the building, Simon leading the way towards where Natsu would be found.

"Damn! My contact with Milliana is being blocked!" Simon exclaimed in frustration, two fingers on his temple. "Now I have no idea where they are!"

"Thought-transmission magic." Juvia explained in response to Lucy's confusion, as Erza exchanged words with Shou behind us.

"Hey...are you sure we should actually be trusting that guy?" Gray asked, in reference to Simon, "I mean I'll accept that he didn't actually try to kill us, and that's all very well, but in that situation, Natsu and Lucy could easily have died." He brought up a serious issue, if I didn't already know what would happen I'd be suspicious too.

"I do not plan on making excuses. If you were the sort of mage who could be killed that easily then you never could have fought Jellal anyway." The man said, "Besides which I had faith that Natsu would not die. You people have still not realized Natsu's true power."

Gray seemed to accept the man, as he didn't argue further. The group returned to silence.

"Hey, Mona…" I turned my attention to Lucy when she spoke. "What do you know? I mean, what you and Simon were talking about before…"

"Yeah," Gray agreed, "It seems a bit fishy to me…" Jeez, he really couldn't trust anyone today could he?

I sighed, I should have known this would come up sooner or later. I wasn't exactly being quiet about knowing things I shouldn't. "It's kind of a long story, shouldn't we focus on the matter at hand?"

"But-"

"I promise I'll tell you later, when we're not running around in enemy territory." and I really would. I knew I could trust them with this.

Any more arguments were cut short when large mouths started growing from the walls. It wad really creepy and I inched closer to Juvia, away from them. They were making a strange noise that reminded me of vocal warm ups. When they eventually spoke, it was Jellal's voice that came out.

"Welcome everybody." He said, "Welcome to the Tower of Heaven."

"What's with these mouths?" Gray questioned.

"They're… talking." Juvia said calmly, examining the disembodied mouths.

"Jellal set this up so that he could be heard in every corner of the Tower."

"His words are transmitted through these mouths?" Lucy asked, looking thoroughly creeped out.

"They're fucking weird." I commented, eyeing them warily.

The mouths carried on speaking. "I am Jellal, the one who controls this tower. All the pieces on both sides have been placed. It is about time to begin." He announced. "The Paradise Game. The rules are simple. I will use Erza as my sacrifice in a ceremony that will resurrect Zeref."

Everyone tensed at the mention of the dark wizard, confirming their suspicions of his plan.

"That is to say, if I open the gates to Paradise, then I win. If you are able to prevent this, then you are the winners. But to make the game more interesting, I have four players here."

I was shocked. Four? I'm sure there were only three… was this my doing? Is this how I have affected the plot? This made me nervous, it was the first major thing I had changed from existing here, and it kinda scared me.

"You must get past then to reach me. Thus this is an 8-on-4 battle." Who could the fourth person be? I'm gonna have to fight him on my own as well, the others need to stick with their fights or else more will be changed… am I going to be strong enough?

"Lastly, there is a special rule in play. The Magic Council might attack this place using the square satellite. It's a destructive magic called 'Etherion', capable of annihilating anything." I was the only one unfazed by this fact, everyone else had tense expressions. "It is unknown how much time remains, but when Etherion hits everyone will die and there will be no winner. Hence, game over."

Lucy had a hand to her mouth in shock, "What is Jellal thinking…" She questioned in horror, "He might be killed to, and he calls this a game…"

"Etherion… from the council." She repeated. "That's impossible! Because-" Her reasoning was cut off, I looked in her direction to see a card had replaced her. Looking closer I saw that she was actually inside the card.

"Erza!" Gray exclaimed in worry for the woman.

"Shou! What are you doing?!" Simon asked, shocked at his nakama's actions.

The mouths on the wall said one more thing before dissappearing, "That's it. Enjoy the game."

"I'm not letting anyone hurt Nee-san." Shou announced, swiping the card from the air. "I'm going to kill Jellal myself." With those words he set off to search for their enemy.

"No! You can't go by yourself!" Simon shouted in vain, "Damn, I'll go after Shou, you all go find Natsu!" He directed before running after his friend.

"Damn it! Why is every one of them so reckless?!" Gray asked in frustration at their actions.

Juvia turned me. "Juvia and Gray-sama will go this way, Lucy and Mona, you go that way." She instructed, pointing one way and then the other.

I nodded while Lucy whispered beside me. "She just wants to stay with Gray doesn't she…" I only smiled at her words.

"I'm really pretty worried about Erza. I'm gonna go on after Shou and the big guy." Gray said, pointing in the right direction. You three go find Natsu, okay?"

I nodded, along with Lucy and only briefly acknowledging Juvia's sorrow at his choice.

Later on, we were still running through the halls when a loud rumbling stop us in our tracks.

"What is it now!?" Lucy complained looking around the room.

"I'm not sure…" I didn't remember this, it had been three years since hearing the plot and quite a bit of it was fuzzy, but I couldn't help but feel uneasy. A crash was heard, I whipped my head to see one part of the wall completely wrecked.

"Yo, it looks like I've found some fun!" A creepy voice said, emerging from the hole in the wall.

So my feelings were right, that's a first.

When he stopped walking I was finally able to get a good look at my opponent. He towered over me, for the first time in my life I felt short, and with my height of six foot that was an achievement. His spikey red hair was probably something that added to his height aswell. He wore a long, red furry jacket open, leaving his chest bare. His pants matched his jacket with them covered in red fur. His face was just as strange, it was pale, unlike the rest of his body which indicated makeup as well as dark purple lipstick and he had an obvious lack of eyebrows.

I stepped in front of the man. "Juvia, Lucy go on. I'll take him myself." I ordered, not breaking eye contact with the enemy.

"But-" Lucy objected, obviously against me fighting someone by myself.

"Let's go, Lucy. Mona can look after herself." Juvia said vouching for me. "Be careful, Mona." I nodded, and with her words they carried on without me.

"Getting a little cocky, eh little girl?" He taunted, grinning widely. "You think you can beat the great Striker!?"

"Not cocky. I just know I'm going to beat you." I replied calmly, pulling my hair tie out and placing it on my wrist instead.

"But you don't know do you? That's not how it works is it?"

I ran a hand through my dark hair. "So you know that much about my knowledge…" I tried to hide my tense feelings, I needed to know how he knew. Right now, I assumed that Ultear was the one who found out, but I couldn't ask her until she formed Crime Sorcire with Jellal and Meredy.

"Let's go." 


	19. Chapter 19

He attacked straight away, pushing his arms out towards me. I stayed in my position, ready to dodge any attack. "Memory magic." He said, magic kept building at his palms until he deemed it strong enough and announced, "History." The Magic shot out, and I made to jump out of the way but it was too fast. I hadn't calculated the speed properly. Suddenly the blue attack engulfed me, I moved my hair in front of me as a barrier, but I felt nothing hit me.

What? I looked around, I was still inside his attack, I could tell from the blue smoke around me but I felt no pain.

"Hey Mona!" The voice of a young girl called out. I frowned at the familiarity. "Mona! Turn around, silly!"

I turned to see a child, no older that eleven looking back at me.

"M-Meena?" I squeaked, trying to step away for the girl to no avail. Looking down I found myself chained to the ground, stopping me from taking a step in any direction.

"Come on, Mona! We've got to go see Taylor." I panicked at her words. No, I didn't want to see her, but why not? She was my friend, right? Why didn't I want to see my friend?

"N-no. I don't want to." I replied. It felt so strange, as if this was the most important thing in my life. But it wasn't.

Yet I still felt so trapped.

"Don't be stupid Mona! We're going." She grabbed my arm and began dragging me along with her, but the chains stopped her. At this the smile on her face fell into a sneer. "God you're always like this Mona! Why do you have to be so annoying!"

"I'm sorry, Meena. I don't mean to be." I answered helplessly, pulling at my bonds to show I was trying.

"Good, you're my friend, I just want to be honest with you." She said. Her smiled returned. I returned the action, she didn't mean to upset me, she was my friend.

"Hey Mona." I turned my head, seeing another girl moving towards Meena.

"Taylor! Hello!" I greet her, my voice was happy, but I could still feel an underlying sense of fear at the sight of the girl. She only smiled back and whispered in Meena's ear. They both snickered when Taylor pulled away. The feeling of sadness returned and I remembered why I didn't want to see her. "Guys, what're you talking about?" I asked, feeling left out.

"Don't be nosey, Mona."

"We don't have to tell you everything, Mona."

"I'm sorry, I just can't help feeling that you're talking about me…" I trailed off, realizing how stupid I sounded. Obviously, they weren't, they were my friends.

"Not everything is about you, Mona." Taylor said harshly, glaring at me.

"Yeah, you're so paranoid, Mona." Meena added, rolling her eyes at my thoughts.

"I'm sorry!" I apologized, realizing they were right. If I was really their friend I'd trust them.

"God what's wrong with you!" Meena asked

"You're so clingy!" Taylor declared.

"You're so irritating! Meena agreed. With every insult they stepped closer to me.

"WE DON'T EVEN LIKE YOU!" They encircled me now, I couldn't escape.

"YOU'RE SO MELODRAMATIC!" I fell to my knees, sobbing loudly.

"Please guys…"

"NO ONE LIKES YOU, MONA!"

"Please stop, I'm sorry."

"WE HATE YOU, MONA!"

"STOP IT!"

Then it was silent.

I raised my head, seeing the two girls were gone and my I was free. The dark fog was replaced by a white abyss and another girl stood before me.

At my words the two girls stopped, I lifted my head from the safety of my knees to see a hand in my face. Following up the arm I saw a blonde, looking the same as when I last saw her.

"What are you doing on the floor you weirdo." I laughed at her words, wiping the tears from my face.

This time I remembered everything, so I replied the same way I did the first time, "I fell."

"Ok." Then the girl plopped down next to me.

"I'm Dawn."

"Mona."

Suddenly the girl was gone, and I was hit by a puff of mist which revealed my previous foe. He looked as smug as before, showing confidence in his magic. "Hah, I never thought you'd be strong enough to break my history wall," The man smirked wiping blood from his face. It seemed the illusion had a connection to his own physical being. "But don't think that's all. I just need to hit you again, and you're vulnerable in your worst memories."

"That is some power you've got there… But it has one weakness-" I lifted from the ground and pointed at him with my hair, "I've been saved."

"What?" The man looked angry at my own confidence, obviously expecting fear in my face.

"No matter what bad memories you pull out, in the end that's all they are; Memories." I manipulated my hair into a group of fists and launched them at the man. "And I plan to kick your ass in the here and now – Hair Gatling Gun!" I shouted as he was hit time after time.

When my attack halted the man weakly pushed himself up, "T-that's not my only power! Requip!" He warned, materialising a large bazooka looking weapon in his hands and aiming.

"Requip magic huh?"

Hm, maybe? Yes! That's my decision. I stopped, moving from a fighting position and walked forward until I could reach the weapon, pulling the end to my chest. "Shoot me."

"H-huh! Are you an idiot!?" The man looked completely different from before, his previous confident personality was now swapped for a wimpy, desperate child.

"Possibly, we'll both find out when this fight ends."

"…" Silence, it seemed like hours but I never loosed my grip that held the weapon and then finally it disappeared and Striker fell onto his hands and knees.

Suddenly a wailing sound met my ears and I was surprised to find the man was sobbing from the defeat. "Ho-how d-did you k-know it was a-an illusion?" He blubbered, and I could barely understand his words. "Are y-you r-eally that str-ong?"

"Strong? Nah." Brushing off his words I began to walk past him towards my original destination, pausing for a moment to stand parallel to him, "But, I've seen requip magic a thousand times in my life, and that's not it."

I smiled. I guess his magic was an illusion type, along with memory because he knew that stuff.

Once I passed a large set of doors and shut them behind me I collapsed onto the floor, his memory spell was stronger than I let on and it had finally taken its toll.

Maybe I'll have time to rest a while.


	20. Chapter 20

I was awoken by a freezing cold feeling. Opening my eyes, I could feel the familiar burning sensation you get from swimming in the ocean and I couldn't breathe. I was in the sea. I tried to swim up to the surface, only to be pushes back down by the waves, trying again I was pulled into a sphere of water instead. This time I was able to breathe and the burning sensation left. I was in Juvia's water lock.

I searched my surrounding to find Juvia, Lucy, Gray, Happy, Shou, Milliana and Wally in the lock with me.

They were all staring at the large tower in worry. I was confused for a moment before remembering. Etherion had hit and it was in some kind of crystal form now.

"Wh…what… is that!?" Juvia asked in horror.

"The outside walls crumbled… leaving some kind of crystal?" Gray tried explaining it, only furthering his confusion.

"Hey… they're okay, right…" Lucy asked, "Natsu, and Erza and that Simon guy." My eyes widened at her words. Simon! I hadn't saved him!

"Fuck!" I shouted, extremely pissed at myself for forgetting something so important. "Fuck, fuck, fuck!"

"What's wrong?" Lucy asked, I guess my actions didn't make her feel any better about the situation, but I had no time to comfort her.

I jumped at the wall of Juvia's lock and tried to get out, but it didn't work. "Juvia! you need to let me out, right now." I ordered seriously.

"Why?" She asked, confusion and worried at my behavior.

"I can't say, just trust me. Let me out, please!" I begged, hoping the urgency in my voice would persuade her.

"You'll drown-"

"If I don't go Simon's going to die!" I said. Screw ruining the future, it could only be changed for the better in this scenario. At my words the others eyes widened in shock.

"Simon! No way!" Milliana argued, unable to think it was possible.

"How do you know that!?" Shou questioned harshly, very angry. "Come on, she's lying, and that's right?

"Why would you say that?" Milliana asked, looking hurt that I would even suggest such a thing.

I looked at them with sadness before turning back to Juvia, "Please…"

Without a word she made an opening in the water lock, and I was soon back in the ocean.

I was surprised by the ferocity of the waves for only a moment until I was used to it. After that I pushed forward, thanking god for being forced to join the swim club in high school. I hoped I wasn't too late, if he died and I couldn't even do anything…

Another wave crashed into me and I was set further back, cursing internally I persevered.

Minutes later and I was still in the exact same place. Everytime I swam a little further another wave and pushed me back to where I started. This was so fucking frustrating, I thought I could get there, but this was pathetic!

My legs hurt my arms hurt, I could barely keep my head up with all the waves crashing into me. My head pounded, but I ignored it until I couldn't ignore it anymore. My eyes closed, I was so stupid. How could I think I could ever do something good? Here I was, trying my hardest to save Simon and I was going to fail, and die in the process. I was useless… I was so fucking useless…

I was awoken by explosions.

Shooting up in worry I found myself in a room. Looking around I realized it was the room I was staying in at Akane beach anf the explosions weren't explosions, they were fireworks.

Why was I here? I thought for a moment until everything came back to me. The Tower of Heaven, fighting Striker, swimming to save Simon. Simon!

No.

No no no.

"Oh you're awake!" I looked up to see Lucy Heartfillia standing in the doorway. "I was just coming in to check on you."

I lowered my head, asking the important question straight away. "What happened to Simon?"

Her footsteps got closer to me until I felt a shift on my bed. "He didn't make it…"

"I- thought I could save him…" I really did. I was sure that I could.

"I know…" Lufy said in pity.

"Oh god, I'm so sorry. I should have warned someone, I should have told him…" I babbled

"Fighting that scary guy really did a number on you, Mona, and then trying to swim against the waves after that… don't beat yourself up about it." She explained. I gave a disheartened nod. "Anyway, you seem to be healthier. Why don't we go see the others? Natsu's still asleep though…" I nodded silently, wanting to see how thet were doing.

When I entered their room I saw Natsu snoring on the bed, covered in more bandages than anyone else, Happy dozing by his side; Gray sitting on an arm chair next to the bed; Juvia was fawning over him, making sure he was okay and Erza was sat on the bed next to Natsu's.

I felt a pang of guilt at the sigh of the red headed woman.

"Oh, Mona! It's good to see you up and about." She greeted, smiling widely at me. This didn't help subdue my guilt.

"E-Erza, I-" I began nervously, when Lucy cut me off.

"Since we're here, why don't you explain what you were talking about back then?" Lucy questioned, in reference to my conversation with Simon.

"What about Natsu?" I asked, pointing to the fire slayer.

"We'll tell him later, I've got to admit that I'm curious." Gray replied.

I nodded. "Okay, well, I'm kind of from a different… world I think is the right word." I was never really sure what it was but world was the term I always used. "My world is very different to this one, there's no magic or anything and the technology is different too. In my world, there's a fictional series called Fairy Tail." The others looked confused at my words. "It follows the adventures of Lucy and Natsu in this world." Lucy splattered at my words. "I know about the missions you've been on, and the things you'll do in your future too." I turned to face Erza. "That's how I knew about Simon…"

"I don't believe you…" Gray commented. I understood this and I guessed that he would be the one to not believe me.

"It seems very far fetched, Mona." Juvia said, now acting serious.

"Uh… Galuna Island! You went to break the curse on the villagers who had turned into monsters, but they were like that all along and had forgotten, I can't remember how though… and Lyon," I turned to Gray, "You were trained Ice Make Magic together."

Gray looked at me for a moment before saying, "It's still so unbelieve…"

"Yeah, i get the confusion…" I answered scratching my head. 


	21. Chapter 21

After I explained my situation to everyone, Juvia and I decided to go back to Magnolia early to join Fairy Tail. She had taken the news of my origins pretty well, and she had even been asking me about her relationship with Gray. To which I simply replied, "Wait and see." When we got back I had set out to find a place to stay that was closer to the guild and actually join the guild.

"You three want to join Fairy Tail?" Makarov Dreyar asked us, a serious expression on his face.

"Very much so." Juvia replied from my left.

"Yes." I answered sincerely.

"Uh-huh." Gajeel confirmed from Juvia's side. I rolled my eyes at his rude behavior, could he just give over for a moment?

I sighed. I was still, very angry at the dragon slayer. When I walked into the newly built guild to meet Juvia and join up I wasn't pleased to see that Gajeel was with her. I knew that she'd invited him to join, but I was hoping that I wouldn't have to see him yet. But it was a weak hope that Juvia would make him join on his very own, and I had to deal with it. It didn't mean that I couldn't childishly ignore the man though, and that is was I was doing.

The guild master stared us down for a moment before sighing. "I suppose I'll give you a chance. You have my permission to join Fairy Tail."

I grinned brightly, unable to hide my happiness. I was actually going to be a member Fairy Tail! The actual Fairy Tail! This was something I'd been daydreaming about since I was eleven!

"However," His face took on a threatening expression, "If you harm or betray your nakama, then you're out. I won't allow any harm to come to my children."

I nodded, a silent agreement to follow his orders.

"Great. Why don't you go to the bar to get your guild marks."

So, following his words, we walked down the guild steps.

"Juvia is very excited to be apart of Gray-sama's guild." Juvia gushed, a blush on her cheeks. I laughed.

"Yeah, I'm really pumped about it too."

"What about Gajeel-kun?" Juvia asked, turning to look at the man in question.

He grunted gruffly, "I guess it will be good to get jobs again."

I rolled my eyes at his actions again. When we reached the bottom of the stair we were met with stares from the other mages in the room. I didn't like being judged but I knew it would happen to I'd have to deal with it. Juvia looked a little hurt beside me, so I tried to push her attention elsewhere.

"C'mon Juvia, we need to get out marks." I said, tugging on her sleeve. My words only worsened the stares, however. I guess they didn't know we were going to be joining then…

"Hey! You're joining Fairy Tail? No way master would let you!" Warren shouted at us, me in particular since I was the one who talked.

"Yes. Juvia is looking forward to-" Her polite words were cut off by another voice.

"As if! You're our enemy!" someone stated.

I frowned, instinctively stepping in front of Juvia. Despite her being stronger than me, I still felt like I had to protect the rain woman.

"We're here to forget about Phantom Lord. If Master Makarov has no issue with it then we're going to join." I bowed my head before carrying on. "I'm deeply sorry about what happened between us, but I hope that we can become friends."

There were no more complaints said to our faces after that, so I proceeded to pull Juvia to the bar.

"Mirajane-san?" I asked, trying to get the woman's attention.

"Hello, Mona. I'm guessing you three want your guild mark?" She asked, a bright smile on her face. This was a large contrast compared to the cold glares we recieved when stepping through the doors.

I nodded and pointed to the place where my phantom mark used to be. I wanted to have a happy thought when I looked at that area. "Can I have it here, please?"

She nodded and pressed lightly on the area, unlike when Ingrid's harsh approach, when she took the stamp away there was a jade coloured Fairy Tail mark on my skin.

I was officially a Fairy Tail mage!

#

"Where the hell were you?!"

"I'm sorry Arnost. There was something I needed to do." I replied, surprising myself with how firm my voice sounded.

"Oh something you needed to do… something she needed to do… yeah that's fine!" He rambled in anger, pacing back and forth in front of me. "That something just so happened to be linked with Dark magic!"

I nodded.

"Oh lord give me strength. I couldn't have taken in child who liked to collect stamps. But no! I had to get the one who has a goddamn death wish and goes missing!" He said mostly to himself.

"I-"

"I said you couldn't go!"

"Arnost pl-"

"And you disobeyed me!"

"Arnost will you listen to me!?" I said, louder this time. He immediately Shutup and I felt guilty straight away.

"I know you just want me to be safe, and I appreciate everything you've done for me since I came here. You've been like a father to me these past few years. But I need you to let me do my own thing. I know it's going to be dangerous and I'm not gonna lie and tell you that I'll be safe, because I won't be. But this is what I've dreamed of for so long. It's not like with Phantom, and you told me yourself that I need to do what makes me happy."

He stared at me in shock, I'd never said anything so sincere to the man.

"So you're moving out to join Fairy Tail." He stated.

I nodded. " I've found an apartment to live in, kinda cheap too." I gave a weak smile "I'll come visit you, and do some jobs at the shop when I need the money. I won't be as much as a burden anymore."

He shook his head. "Is everyone this stupid in your world?"

I was shocked at the question. My eyes were wide and my mouth was open much like a fish.

"Don't treat like an idiot. I've known for a while now that you're not from here." He stepped forward and pulled me into a hug. "You were never a burden to me."

I was sad to be leaving Arnost. Despite his usual gruff behaviour I knew he cared about me, and I was very thankful for everything he had done for me these past three years. I honestly didn't deserve most of the things he did for me but he still did.

And before I knew it I had tears pouring down my face. I really was going to miss this place, but I knew that I would finally living my life like I always wanted.


End file.
